Chris Bauer, an actor from Sag Harbor, is co-starring with Lawrence Gillard Jr., Jordan Lage, and Rebecca Pidgeon in “The Penitent,” a new play by David Mamet that premiered yesterday at the Atlantic Theater Company in Manhattan and will run through March 19.

Mr. Bauer plays a renowned psychiatrist who is asked to testify on behalf of a young patient. When he refuses, his career, ethics, and faith are thrown into question.

Among Mr. Bauer’s many credits are starring roles in HBO’s “True Blood” and “The Wire.” He recently appeared in the award-winning FX series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” and his film credits include Clint Eastwood’s “Sully” and Jodie Foster’s “Money Monster.”

 A former trustee of Bay Street Theater, Mr. Bauer has worked with Mr. Mamet on the West Coast premiere of the playwright’s “Race” and the Bay Street production of his “Romance.”

“Madoo in Manhattan: The Fourth Annual Robert Dash Garden Design Lecture” will take place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Cosmopolitan Club in Manhattan. The guest speaker will be Jinny Blom, an award-winning British garden designer, whose subject will be “Changing Nature: Towards a New Landscape.”

Ms. Blom’s gardens for public institutions and private clients, including the Prince of Wales, run the gamut from therapeutic gardens to estates in Europe, Africa, and the United States. She is the author of the forthcoming “Thoughtful Gardener: An Intelligent Approach to Garden Design.”

A reception will follow her talk. Tickets are $150, $125 for members.

The Montauk Library will present “Salty Songs and Sailor Slang,” a program of authentic sea chanteys and nautical ballads performed by Scuttlebutt Stu and Blood Red Robin, on Sunday  at 5:30 p.m.

The free program will feature songs from the War of 1812 to the 20th century that tell of life at sea, including sailors’ complaints, tales of adventure, and thoughts of home. The library has recommended the program for families.

The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced that films presented during the 2016 festival have received 45 Oscar nominations. The nominated films are “20th Century Women,” “Blind Vaysha,” “Fire at Sea,” “I Am Not Your Negro,” “Joe’s Violin,” “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Loving,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Moonlight,” “The Red Turtle,” “The Salesman,” “Timecode,” “Toni Erdmann,” and “The White Helmets.”

Two decades ago, Neil LaBute emerged on the scene with “In the Company of Men,” a movie taken from his earlier play, with a plot featuring the callous seduction of a deaf woman. The film received a number of awards and distinctions, and it launched him as an enfant terrible who went out of his way to say the heretofore unsayable. 

In 2017, a reality star is in the White House, and much of what might have been startling in the way of manners and actions back then barely raises an eyebrow. Mr. LaBute’s 2014 play, “The Money Shot,” now on stage at the Southampton Cultural Center, no longer seems transgressive or shocking, but more a reflection of its times.

The film version of “Company of Men” did not predate reality television in 1997. But the play, written in 1992, dovetails exactly with the airing of “The Real World” series on MTV. The show, with its tag line “What happens when people stop being polite and start getting real,” began airing the same year, and did have characters who said what was on their mind, no matter how politically incorrect or hurtful.

A few years later the reality genre skyrocketed, with competition shows such as “Survivor,” “The Bachelor,” and, yes, “The Apprentice,” as well as the celebrities-at-home variants like “The Osbournes,” “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and all those many “Real Housewives.”

These shows have made their mark by showcasing people at their worst: callous, self-centered, greedy, backstabbing, vain, demanding, entitled. After so many years of witnessing this bad behavior, not only has public comportment coarsened, but our expectations of real and fictional conduct have, too.

So what does outlandish behavior look like in 2017? What it looks like in this play from three years ago is startlingly prescient. When Steve, a brash and full-of-himself action film star played by Joseph Marshall, questions the veracity of facts retrieved by Google because they prove that his own far-fetched notions are wrong, the situation seems all too familiar in this age of fake news‚ or accusations thereof.

Bonnie Grice plays Karen, a fading film star who has made a brand of herself by marketing her lifestyle through a blog and cookbooks. The spokeswoman for all manner of products and causes, she too seems a commonplace amalgam of her 2017 counterparts.

Missy, who is married to Steve, is half his age and clearly has an eating disorder that he has encouraged so she can keep her youthful figure as she ages. She is the stand-in for the modern American woman who feels compelled to ensure her perfection through hair color and extensions, personal trainers, injectables, lasers, and — when all else fails — surgery. She clearly feels that her main purpose in life is to be looked at. In a wig, a romper, and sky-high heels, Tamara Salkin captures Missy’s essence and keeps the audience guessing with her dimly delivered but often truthful insights.

Mr. LaBute’s proxy in this play may be Bev, a film editor and the partner of Karen. A graduate of Brown University, she wears her intelligence as a badge as she airs her frustration with the lack of smarts on display in what she thinks of as her home. Karen, though, quickly reminds her that this is her house, not Bev’s. Bev is no hero, though. Her pride in her intellect and her resulting pomposity may be buried in such appearance-obsessed company, but it is there just the same.

Joan Lyons, the director, writes in the playbill that “The Money Shot” represents new territory for the theater group. Perhaps reflecting on the characters’ (mostly) one-dimensionality, she wonders whether “we are seeing the real personality and moral compasses of these four characters, or are we seeing an ‘act,’ a cloak to disguise who they really are, who they want us to see?”

The set, a patio overlooking downtown Los Angeles, seems an exact replica of the one used in the play’s off-Broadway run, at least in the furniture and its placement. It implies the outdoors, with square columns strewn with ivy and bridged with gossamer draperies. The modern dark brown rattan couch, lounge, and settee with their plump cushions and elaborate throw pillows look expensive, as does the name-brand vodka, which flows freely throughout the play.

The group is brought there for dinner and to discuss the next day’s scenes from Steve and Karen’s comeback film. Their experimental Belgian director wants to inject some reality into their sex scene, and they want their partners’ permission to proceed. In the first act, they seem to discuss everything but that, but later on the plot and their plan detonates, with an unexpected twist.

It is telling that East Coast critics, such as The New York Times’s Ben Brantley, were mostly underwhelmed by the play, whereas it was praised by Variety’s critic in Los Angeles. New York audiences no doubt found the vacuous self-absorption of the characters antithetical to their own more intellectualized narcissism, whereas Hollywood just can’t get enough of itself, even when its ideals are being condemned.

The play continues through Sunday.

“Steel Magnolias,” Robert Harling’s 1987 comedy-drama that became widely known thanks to the star-studded 1989 film, has over the years been met by critics with praise, derision, and everything in between. While one critic said, “The writing is filled with clever, country-fried witticisms and hilarious one-liners,” another wrote, “The script is formulaic and not as funny as it ought to be.” 

Judging by the almost constant laughter at the opening night on Friday of the Springs Community Theater Company’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” the full house clearly agreed with the favorable verdict.

The play is set entirely within Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, La., in the 1980s. Unlike the film, which moved outside into the community and included a larger cast of characters, the play has only six principals, all women for whom the salon functions as a kind of social club, where they gossip, catch up on one another’s lives, vent grievances, and dispense advice.

The set at the Springs Presbyterian Church spills off the stage into the audience’s space. While two styling chairs occupy the stage, a couch, a table with magazines, an old-fashioned hair dryer, and a manicure station are close enough to the audience that, while the production doesn’t entirely dispense with the fourth wall, it allows the viewer to feel more like an eavesdropper than a spectator.

Truvy is the anchor of the play, and Susan Conklin inhabits the role completely, her funny one-liners and observations underlain by wry common sense. The other characters are Annelle (Claire Hopkins), a shy young woman who is new to the community; Shelby (Virginia Haller), whose imminent marriage to Jackson is the subject of discussion in the first act; M’Lynn (Jayne Freedman), Shelby’s mother and sometime adversary; Clairee (Shelly Bennett), the happy widow of the town’s recently deceased mayor, and Ouiser (Vay David), who storms in with a furious but comical rant about M’Lynn’s husband, whose habit of shooting birds is unnerving her hairless dog.

The four parts of the play cover three years, during which Shelby’s marriage, pregnancy, and successful, if premature, delivery of Jackson Jr. provide the narrative drive and emotional depth. It is revealed in the first act that Shelby has Type 1 diabetes, which makes pregnancy a risky proposition for both mother and child and explains why M’Lynn seems less enthusiastic than the other women about Shelby’s impending marriage and, later, her pregnancy. Shelby is for the most part free-spirited and optimistic, while her mother, who is a psychotherapist, tries gamely to tamp down her misgivings about her daughter’s choices.

As the play progresses and Shelby’s optimism becomes more and more desperate, the comedy, while never disappearing, becomes increasingly modulated by the characters’ concerns about Shelby’s health. The humor stays sharp, and the tragedy for the most part avoids the thin ice of soap opera.

All the performances are persuasive, as the characters gradually reveal more of themselves and their emotional depth. It’s a long play with nonstop dialogue that moves seamlessly from character to character and shifts constantly from upstage to downstage, a tribute to the cast and directors, Diana Horn and Kathleen Horn.

If Ms. Conklin embodies the relatively centered Truvy, Ms. David enters every scene like a blunt but hilarious force, her booming voice, angry facial expressions, and general vituperation capturing perfectly a character whose cynicism only modulates toward the end of the play. Think Susie Essman on steroids.

Ms. Haller conveys the optimism of a character whose favorite — whose only — color is pink, while subtly suggesting the fears she tries to downplay when among the other women. Ms. Freedman has the most difficult role, as she must shift between being an upbeat member of the gossip-centered social club while worrying about and trying to protect her daughter (and herself) without being overbearing. The play concludes with her extended monologue, which moves between forced cheer and sadness before she finally, for the first time in the play, gives in to her emotions and breaks down completely. She carries it off persuasively.

Ms. Hopkins handles seamlessly a transformation from diffident outsider to comfortable member of the group to born-again Christian whose vacation will be spent at a Bible camp. Ms. Bennett lights up each scene she takes part in, her jovial aunt-like demeanor offset by comments such as, “Well, you know what they say: If you don’t have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me.” 

The final two performances will take place tomorrow and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Springs Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $20, $15 for senior citizens and students. One recommendation: Bring a seat cushion for the steel folding chairs.

What Sotheby’s called “the Schellinger-Hendrickson Very Fine and Rare Clock,” a tall-case beauty made by the East Hampton craftsman Nathaniel Dominy IV in 1780, was sold Saturday afternoon at the auction house’s Manhattan headquarters for $24,000 to an unknown buyer bidding by telephone.

Two astute collectors of Dominy furniture and clocks, Glenn Purcell and Charles Keller of East Hampton, sat in the room for hours waiting for the clock, which had a presale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000, to come up. It was knocked down in less than a minute, Mr. Purcell said.

“It opened at $19K,” he texted afterward. “I didn’t even raise my paddle as it jumped to $22K, then in a second to $24K. With Sotheby’s premium fees of 25 percent [the surcharge an auction house attaches to sales], plus New York State tax, it exceeded what we were willing to spend.”

According to the provenance provided by Sotheby’s, the walnut clock descended through the Schellinger family to Hattie Woodhull Schellinger, who sold it on May 29, 1939, to a Lumber Lane, Bridgehampton, neighbor, Howard F. Hendrickson, “for a sum of $150, plus $50 to be paid in milk and eggs.” Saturday’s successful bidder received, along with his or her purchase, a letter written by the late Mr. Hendrickson, describing the clock’s history as told to him by Hattie — and therein, as will be seen, lies a complication. 

Mr. Hendrickson’s letter reads as follows:

The history of my Telltale Alarm repeater clock made in East Hampton by Nathaniel Dominy in 1780 is as follows. This was told to me by Miss Hattie Schellinger from whom I bought the timepiece. Miss Schellinger was in her 91st year when this was related, on October 13, 1939.

Sylvester Schellinger is a native of Amagansett, the grandfather of Miss Hattie. He moved to Setauket, L.I. and taught school there for years. The journey no doubt was mostly by boat. This clock included. Sylvester died in Setauket 1839 and of his family there was but a 14 year old son, George Woodhull Schellinger, who was sent back to Amagansett to live with relatives. The teacher’s belongings and clock were shipped from Port Jefferson to Greenport by railroad, and because the crated clock had some appearance of a coffin the railroad demanded the crate to be opened. From Greenport the things were shipped by boat back to Amagansett.

George married in 1847 and became the father of Miss Hattie Schellinger. George left for the gold fields of California in 1849, later returned home poor and died of a fever contracted when in California. (“When [George’s] wife opened the door, he said, ‘Juliette, I’ve come home to die,’ “ according to Jeannette Edwards Rattray’s book of East Hampton genealogy.)

George’s widow (Miss Hattie’s mother) married Jacob Strong [in] 1855 and with clock and household moved by boat from Amagansett to East Marion. Later this family and clock moved again by boat from East Marion to North Sea, Southampton. At the close of the Civil War [in] 1864 Jacob Strong and family, Miss Hattie Schellinger, moved by wagon to Bridgehampton and lived out their lives at the corner of Lumber Lane. After Miss Hattie’s death, I had the case and works repaired and brought to my home. Miss Hattie retained the clock during her life. Jacob Strong had no children.

Howard F. Hendrickson.

P.S. Before radio, Miss Hattie Schellinger in order to tell time, because she was blind, would stand on stool, open glass door of clock, and, feeling hands, get the time of day. H.F.H.

Why did this rare Dominy clock, described by Charles Hummel in his definitive book “With Hammer in Hand: The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, Long Island” as “probably the first example of the clockmaker’s elaborate work to survive,” though “unfortunately not recorded in Dominy manuscripts,” attract so few bidders and sell for so much less than its low estimate — especially since the last auction of a Dominy long-case, at Sotheby’s in January 2012, fetched, surcharge included, $110,500? 

Because Mr. Hummel denies that Saturday’s clock is the clock referred to in the Hendrickson letter.

“It is definitely not the same clock,” he said a  few hours before the sale began. “The letter refers to a simple one-stroke clock later made for Isaac Schellinger in 1787,” while “this clock auctioned was the first complex mechanism Nathaniel Dominy made.”

“ ‘Old Hattie’ was 91 when she talked to Howard Hendrickson about the clock,” Mr. Hummel noted, suggesting that her account ought not be taken for gospel. “She confused her family genealogy,” he said flatly. “This clock is not what she’s describing.” Instead, he said, “There is an excellent chance” it was made for one Elnathan Parsons of Fireplace and did not come into possession of the Schellinger family until 1867, when a grandson of Elnathan married a Schellinger. 

In Amagansett in 1954 or ’55, Mr. Hummel said, he had seen the very clock that Mr. Hendrickson was said to have bought in 1939. “I talked with a much younger Hattie Schellinger in her Amagansett home . . . she said the clock was always in the Schellinger family.” Not long after that conversation, Mr. Hummel wrote about the clock in “Hammer in Hand”: “Walnut, a more expensive wood than that found in most of the other Dominy clocks, was chosen for the case. . . . All of the pewter dials used for the best clocks have engraved Roman numerals to mark the hours and Arabic numerals to denote minutes.”

Mr. Hummel believes that “young Hattie” sold the clock she showed him later on, to Howard Hendrickson. Is it possible that as the years passed Mr. Hendrickson acquired not one but two Dominy clocks — one made in 1780, the other in 1787 — each of them from a Hattie Schellinger, and confused the two in his letter?

Whatever the case, it seems clear that the uncertainty as to provenance, compounded by the clock at auction having been refinished and its original weights replaced, alarmed prospective purchasers. 

“We always want to know for sure,” Mr. Purcell said. “We would have gone gangbusters for this if we had known for sure who it was made for. With a clean-cut provenance and condition, the sky’s the limit.” 

Mr. Purcell and Mr. Keller, who own two listed Dominy clocks, have worked closely with Mr. Hummel in the past, and the expert’s opinion “played a heavy role” in their decision not to raise the bid, Mr. Keller said. “He’s the boss,” he said. “He’s on a pedestal for us. What he says goes.”

“I am hoping someone in the Schellinger family bought it, but we know some of them and they were not in the room,” said Mr. Purcell. “I hope it’s at least somewhere on the East End.”

New at Malia Mills

The Winter Salon Series at Malia Mills, a pop-up gallery in the clothing purveyor’s Main Street, East Hampton, space, will open a new group exhibition with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. Organized by Folioeast’s Coco Myers and Kay Gibson, the show will run through Feb. 12.

Mary Ellen Bartley will show works from her folded series of book edges, and Carolyn Conrad will be represented by large-format house pieces. Roisin Bateman’s recent paintings continue her exploration of subtle bands of color and line, while Dan Welden’s large prints shimmer with vibrant bursts of color. 

Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment by calling 917-592-8033.

Abstraction at Halsey Mckay

“Flat Fix,” an exhibition of work by 18 artists organized by Ryan Steadman, is on view, by appointment only, at the Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton through Feb. 21.

The works in the show reflect the development of abstract painting to the point at which industrial and household materials — among them plastic, rubber, vinyl, and printing ink — are incorporated into artworks. The title reflects the way in which such materials finish, enhance, or improve the flat painted surfaces.

African-American Artists

The Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor will open “Expanding Tradition: The Journey of the African-American Artist” with a reception Saturday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The show, which celebrates Black History Month, will run through March 5.

Organized with Andreé MiChelle,  a writer from Sag Harbor, the exhibition features the work of seven emerging and midcareer artists who have mastered the classical techniques championed by the gallery over the past 20 years.

The show will include work by Mario Robinson, George Morton, Philip Smallwood, Jas Knight, Roger Beckles, James Hoston, and Irvin Rodriguez. The gallery will host a book signing on Feb. 18 for Ms. MiChelle’s new book, “Escape Under Cover: The Ola Mae Story,” a young-adult novel set during the time of the Underground Railroad.

Victoria Munroe Opens

In Manhattan

Victoria Munroe, an art dealer who opened galleries in New York City and Boston before launching the Drawing Room in East Hampton with Emily Goldstein in 2004, has opened Victoria Munroe Fine Art on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. 

The gallery will present exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, often juxtaposed with historical works on paper. The next show, which will open Wednesday and continue through April 1, will feature sculpture by Costantino Nivola and paintings on paper by Antonio Asis. 

Works by both artists have been exhibited at the Drawing Room, which is open by appointment only through March.

Jeff Muhs in Chelsea

“Supernature,” an exhibition of paintings by Jeff Muhs, will open today at the Lyons Wier Gallery in Chelsea and continue through Feb. 25. A reception will be held tonight from 6 to 8.

Mr. Muhs, a painter, sculptor, and designer who lives in Southampton, will show layered works that begin with the application of black oil paint over a prepared surface. He then applies opaque areas of color to the canvas, creating a push and pull between background and foreground and a dialogue between dense areas of color and churning areas of black and white.

Stacked Images in Sag

The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor will present “Transasia Stacks,” a show of photographs by Gerald Pryor, from Tuesday through Feb. 28, with a reception set for Feb. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m. 

According to the photographer, who has owned a house in Sag Harbor since 1986 and has visited China annually since then, “Stacks are two to three still photographic images placed on top of each other. At times they are distinct, at times they blur and merge.” The stacked photographs from Sag Harbor and China result in images that transcend both locations.

“50 Shades of White”

The Art Gallery at the Quogue Library is presenting “50 Shades of White,” a juried photography show that celebrates the beauty of white in all its permutations. On view through Feb. 26, the photographs, by 23 East End photographers, will be judged by Neil Watson, director of the Long Island Museum and formerly director of the Katonah Museum of Art in Westchester County. Prizewinners will be announced at a reception on Saturday from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

The Met: Live in HD will present an encore screening of Verdi’s “Nabucco,” with Placido Domingo in the title role, at Guild Hall on Saturday at 1 p.m. 

Mr. Domingo, who brings another new baritone role to the Met under the baton of his longtime collaborator, James Levine, is joined by Liudmyla Mona­styrska as Abigaille, Jamie Barton as Fenena, and Dmitri Belosselskiy as the stentorian voice of the Hebrew people.

Tickets are $22, $20 for members, $15 for students. The screening has been rescheduled from Jan. 7, when it was cancelled due to a snowstorm, and tickets for that screening will be honored on Saturday. Those unable to attend the encore can request a refund at [email protected].

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will hold tribute concerts at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

The entire album will be performed each night from start to finish by a stellar group of local musicians, including Joe Lauro and Michael Schiano (HooDoo Loungers), Dan Koontz (Mama Lee Rose and Friends, Nancy Atlas, HooDoo Loungers), Howard Silverman (NYRMA), Fred Gilde (Mama Lee Rose), Jeff Levitt (White Collar Crime), and Mick Hargreaves (Joe Delia and Thieves). Horn and string players will join them.

Tickets are $30 in advance, $40 the day of the show.