![\"Lionel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/WCTBAKERSFIELDMIST4.jpg\")
The battle between Lionel and Maude becomes acrimonious and personal.-Matthew Caine<\/p>\nThe battle between Lionel and Maude becomes acrimonious and personal.-Matthew Caine<\/p>\n
For a fascinating, heartfelt reveal of what constitutes real value in life, the dark and meaningful comedy, Bakersfield Mist, opens at Willits Community Theatre on Friday, Sept. 18. The play by Stephen Sachs is loosely based on the story of a woman who bought a painting at a thrift store and came to believe it was a Jackson Pollock worth millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Directed by Jim Williams, the production stars two of WCT\u2019s veterans: Cindi Mohr as the boozy, hard-tongued ex-bartender Maude, with her desperate hope for riches; and Steve Marston as Lionel, the effete and expert art appraiser showing up at Maude\u2019s trailer with every intention of leveling his professional judgment.<\/p>\n
The action heats up quickly when Lionel determines to Maude\u2019s horror that her Pollock is not authentic. What quickly turns into an acrimonious and very personal battle between the two ultimately progresses into something altogether unexpected about what really constitutes true value in life.<\/p>\n
Director Williams says, \u201cThe importance of the play is that these two people, who are absolute opposites, who never would connect under any circumstances, end up put together by fate\u2026for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
We learn Maude has lost her son in a car accident, and she yearns for something of value to relieve her grief and loss. For all his snobbery, Lionel discovers how value can be based more on what an art piece means to someone than on its authenticity as an object.<\/p>\n
Williams says the play offers a particularly poignant lesson for our society today, where two people of opposites can come to an understanding of each other. In the end, Lionel has to admit to Maude, \u201cI can see you\u2019re a person of value.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play runs Sept. 18 through Oct. 4, with shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday Matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at www.wctperformingartscenter.org or at the door. Due to the adult language and sexual content, the show is not appropriate for patrons under 17 unless accompanied by an adult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The battle between Lionel and Maude becomes acrimonious and personal.-Matthew Caine For a fascinating, heartfelt reveal of what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,7,7286,7287,266,71256,420,58048,71257],"class_list":["post-458257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-california","tag-mendocino-county","tag-north-coast","tag-northern-california","tag-redwood-valley","tag-things-to-do","tag-ukiah","tag-willits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}