Bakersfield Mist review, Duchess theatre

Kathleen Turner's gravel tones are so delicious that in Bakersfield Mist, a jolly two-hander examining the myths underpinning the art market, it is enough to just hear her, even when the debate is a little bit clunky and a lot predictable.

Turner plays Maude Gutman, a trailer park mom who believes she picked up a Jackson Pollock in a garden sale. When a private expert, Lionel Percy, arrives to authenticate the piece, it becomes clear that the provenance of the owner has as great an effect on his evaluation as the provenance of the painter. Who will believe a woman like Maude possesses the sensate soul that marks out a connoisseur? Or that she had the nous to follow through on a chance remark and research Pollock's work to the point where she demands authentication? Who would want to believe it: certainly not Percy. Stephen Sachs' script for Bakersfield Mist is based on the true story that I cannot unearth online. How it ended we'll never know, but the preamble is highly entertaining.

Director, Polly Teale, extracts a  gritty and authentic performance from Turner who is terrific in the role, but her foil, the normally brilliant Ian McDiarmid, pitches into caricature. His performance becomes increasingly overblown as he hits the Jack Daniels, and his fey and nuanced presentation slips into Wardour Street queen. That said, while Bakersfield Mist lacks sophistication, it is pulling in a new audience and at 75 minutes it ends before it gets dull.

In conclusion: The questions raised about what and who decides what is great art are perennials and Sachs does not so much provide food for thought as crumbs. But... Turner has pulled in a new audience who cheered when she arrived on Tom Piper's gloriously kitsh and atmospheric set, and went on to clap each set piece. A fun evening.

References
Bakersfield Mist, Duchess Theatre, Tickets

Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street, London WC2. Run ends 30 August.