I am collaborating with Polly Teale again, after the success of Bracken Moor, on this exciting two hander at The Duchess opening in early May. It is based on a true story of a woman , played by Kathleen Turner, who discovers what she thinks is a Jackson Pollock Painting in a thrift store in Bakersfield California. She lives in a trailer park, and collects what others throw away to furnish her home. It needs to be a very naturalistic design as one of the themes of the play is the instant value judgements we make and how easy it is to misjudge on appearances. I am having to find the balance between making her environment too kitsch, which would be patronising to the character , but still weird and extraordinary enough for the art expert, Ian McDiarmid , to misjudge her and possibly the painting.
I have set the trailer in a nest of detritus and a jumble of creeper descending from a framing tree , so that in some lights it will almost seem to be inside a 3D Jackson Pollock , with references to Gordon Matta Clark in the way the trailer is cut open. Amusing revue from Ian Shuttleworth at FT. It has been fun to get all cluttered for a change !
Bakersfield Mist. Directed by Polly Teale Designed by Tom Piper
Model
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