Oil and Water: Clear the Clutter and You Have a Great Story
Photo. Barb Gray. Anderson Ryan Allen as the young Lanier.
Clear the clutter and you have a great story. The problem is that the debris is not out of the way until the last section of the show. That is just too long to wait for the many threads introduced in Oil and Water to come together in a meaningful way.
Built around the true story of the rescue of Lanier Phillips, a black sailor whose ship, the USS Truxton, ran aground in a remote Newfoundland community in 1942, Oil and Water moves between past and present. It parallels the experiences of Phillips’ grandmother, a slave, and his teenage daughter, who faces the violent prejudice associated with racial integration in the U.S., with the harsh life faced by Newfoundland coal miners in the1940s.
Individual segments are highly effective, but director Jillian Keiley has permitted too much shouting, too little clarity of speech, often overwhelmed by too loud music, and too much awkwardness in folding the threads together, as well as the over-employment of the centrepiece of the set — a giant sextant. The result is a blurring of the redemption theme and a deadening of interest in current action.
It is sad because there are some excellent performances, particularly from Petrina Bromley as Violet, the miner’s wife, who does her best to scrub the black oil from Phillips’ skin after he reaches shore. This is the point when the show clicks — a demonstration that no one in this all-white community has seen anyone of a different race and proof that prejudice has to be taught.
After the wonders of Chafe’s Tempting Providence, also an Artistic Fraud/Jillian Keiley production, Oil and Water is a major disappointment.
Oil and Water continues at the NAC Theatre to May 31, 2014.
Oil and Water
By Robert Chafe
An Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (St. John’s) production at the National Arts Centre
Director: Jillian Keiley
Musical director: Kellie Walsh
Composer: Andrew Craig
Set: Shawn Kerwin
Lighting: Leigh Ann Vardy
Sound: Don Ellis
Costumes: Marie Sharpe
Cast:
Phillips………….Anderson Ryan Allen
Adeline…………Neema Bickersteth
Violet…………..Petrina Bromley
Bergeron……….Clint Butler
Vonzia………….Starr Dominigue
Langston……….Mike Fayette
Levi…………….Mark Power
John…………….Jody Richardson
Lanier…………..Jeremiah Sparks
Ena…………….Alison Woolridge