This delightful play has
already been getting rave reviews from all the LA critics and here’s my
addition to the accolades. The story is simple, full of witty humor, but
moving. A woman in a trailer park has bought a supposedly original Jackson Pollock
for $3 in a thrift store. It is certainly good enough to interest a renowned art
expert from New York to travel to California to appraise it.
As should be
expected there is a clash between the blunt and saucy ex-bartender and the snobbish
and repressed ex-director of the Metropolitan Museum. Who
actually knows the truth and, in the end, does it really matter?
Author-director Stephen
Sachs probes the hearts of two people passionate about the genuine article –
whether in art or humanity. Inhabitants of different worlds, they dodge and
parry over far more than a mere painting. With two brilliant actors at full
gallop, we witness a magnificent battle of wills as Maude (Jenny O’Hara)
fiercely challenges Lionel’s (Nick Ullett) complacent surety that he is the
ultimate expert on authenticity.
The fabulous trinket-filled-trailer
set is by Jeffrey McLaughlin, with subtle but effective lighting by Bill E.
Kickbush, and sound by Peter Bayne. Costumes by Shon LeBlanc, and props by
Terri Roberts, cleverly illuminate the class differences. Produced for Fountain
Theatre by Simon
Levy and Deborah Lawlor.
At The Fountain Theatre, 5060
Fountain Ave, Hollywood, extended through January 30. Tickets: (323) 663-1525
or www.FountainTheatre.com.
Pay-What-You-Can every Monday night!
Photos by Ed Krieger.
Also reviewed in the January issue of NOT BORN
YESTERDAY.
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