What is the value of art?
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It’s a question unemployed bartender Maude is keen to find out after she discovers a painting in an op shop she swears is an original Jackson Pollock.
The painting, which would be worth millions, could change her trailer park life.
For Australian actress Julie Nihill, who plays Maude in Bakersfield Mist, the question might need to be muddled over for a bit longer.
“I haven’t got the answer,” Nihill said.
“But that’s what is so fabulous is it brings up those questions.”
In many indigenous cultures, creating art was an everyday experience, and “integral part of life”, she said.
Now there was a separation between art and the audience, whether it was created by a stage or a screen, Nihill said.
While Nihill considers the philosophical answer, Maude is a bit more interested in the dollar figures associated with the potentially rare find.
She struggles for confirmation for what her intuition tells her to be true, facing doubt at every turn.
World-class art expert Lionel Percy, played by John Wood, soon joins her on her journey for validation.
“It changes her forever,” Nihill said.
“It’s really self validation women have … the validation you have to find within yourself.”
Lionel arrives fresh from New York to find her trailer park home and verify whether the painting is an original Pollock.
“So she lures the unsuspecting arts dealer into her caravan, it’s a bit like Dante’s Inferno for him,” Nihill said.
Fortunately it was far less traumatic for the duo to reunite.
Nihill and Wood first worked together on Blue Heelers, and were in the same episode of Hamish and Andy, although they were never in the same scene.
It was even at Wood’s birthday Nihill first heard about Bakerfield Mist.
She was getting back into acting after spending several years as a teacher, and a couple of days later she was sent the script.
“I read it once and rung my agent to say I wanted to be involved.”
It was a physically challenging play, but one that audiences engaged with the many questions about human truths it provoked, she said.
Six weeks into production, Nihill watched the documentary of the tale which inspired Bakersfield Mist, revolving around Maude who is a truck driver in real life living in the United States.
“You work from the text because it’s the play-writer’s creation,” Nihill said.
Not knowing the true story until later in the piece meant Maude could continue to grow each night Nihill took to the stage, adding different nuance and shades to the character, she said.
The show has travelled around regional Australia, performing in theatres large and small.
But the upcoming Launceston show was special for Nihill.
Returning to “the Apple Isle” signalled the end of the tour, although she was pleased to have time off to rediscover the state.
“I’ll never forget the play,” she said.
“As a creation, it’s a gift. Not only as a role, but as a play.”
- Bakersfield Mist will be performed at the Princess Theatre on September 12 from 7.30pm. Tickets are $48 for adults and $39.50 for students, concession and adult subscribers.