Bakersfield Mist

Reviewed by Gray Palmer
Fountain Theater
Through January 30

RECOMMENDED

Astonishing to consider: Since premiering at the Hollywood’s Fountain Theatre in 2011, Stephen Sachs’s Bakersfield Mist has been seen in Reykjavik and Wagga Wagga, almost perfect antipodes, with productions in what seems like every time zone between. After a complete circumnavigation, now the Mist has returned to its point of origin, perhaps to begin a new phase of global infilling. Is it a play or a flu — dispersed by pleasurable fog?

At the Duchess in the West End, they had dazzling Kathleen Turner (with Ian McDiarmid); in Chicago, “Equity’s Oldest Actor” and critics’ favorite, Mike Nussbaum. I’m unfamiliar with the Tasmanian stars, but when it shows up in Dallas maybe Candy Buckley will be the vector.

Sachs, co-artistic director at the Fountain, based his play on the story of trucker Teri Horton. She paid five dollars at a thrift store for an ugly painting — as a gag-gift to cheer up a friend. But the canvas was too big to fit through the door of her friend’s trailer home, and just too ugly. When Horton tried to recoup by offering it in a yard sale, a local art teacher told her, “I think you may have a Jackson Pollock.”

Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was engaged to authenticate the picture. Hoving’s forensic defense of his judgment can be found at Artnet online, along with other details that appear in the play.

Relative literary merit doesn’t matter in a case like this. The show was conceived as a gift for the acting couple, Jenny O’Hara and Nick Ullett. Sachs says that he heard their voices while he wrote the play, and that sometimes it seemed he was taking dictation. And the proof is in the pudding.

In the hands of these terrific actors, Bakersfield Mist is a charming battle between art expert Lionel Percy (Ullett) and unemployed bartender Maude Gutman (O’Hara), set during Percy’s examination visit to her double-wide trailer.

Probably not many people remember D.L. Coburn (ad-man, marketing consultant, Pulitzer for drama, 1978). But, if you saw it, you are not likely to forget the performances of Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn at the Golden in Coburn’s The Gin Game. The same thing with O’Hara and Ullett here.

Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood; Mon., 8 p.m.; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through January 30. (323) 663-1525, https://fountaintheatre.com. Running time: 85 minutes without intermission.