OIL AND WATER by Robert Chafe, directed by Jillian Keiley, with Ryan Allen, Neema Bickersteth, Jeremiah Sparks, Petrina Bromley and Jody Richardson (Artistic Fraud/Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst). Opens Wednesday (April 18) and runs to May 6, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $30-$40. 416-504-9971. See listing.
Afro-American gospel and Newfoundland folk tunes may seem to make strange musical bedfellows, but they’re the soul of Robert Chafe’s Oil And Water.
The play is based on the true story of American sailor Lanier Phillips, shipwrecked off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942. The only black man to survive a storm at sea, he was warmly cared for by citizens of the small mining town of St. Lawrence, some of whom had never before seen a person of colour.
Chafe (Tempting Providence, Afterimage) ties this story with one set three decades later, as the grown-up Phillips and his school-age daughter are forced to deal with segregationists in a volatile Boston community.
But there’s another history linked to both of these tales, that of Phillips’s great-grandmother, Adeline, a slave who tries, as a ghostly presence, to instill her fear of whites in her great-grandson.
“She knew freedom at the end of her life, but the perspective of a slave world was ingrained in her,” says Neema Bickersteth, who plays the part. “Had she lived in a later period, she might have tried to invoke a sense of family pride, but all she can provide are the rules she thinks he needs to survive in a white-dominated society. From her perspective, it’s important that the young man do as he’s told and not rock the boat, so to speak.
“Ironically, the older Phillips is an activist who wants to bring change into his daughter’s life.”
Bickersteth’s a fine actor whose Toronto work has been in musicals you’ve seen her in Caroline Or Change, Obeah Opera, Stitch and On The Rocks. This is the first time she’s working in a play, one that mostly asks her to speak dialogue. She admits it’s a little scary, since she’s used to relying on her musical talent onstage.
“I was trained in opera, and I love Robert’s writing because it has such a seductive rhythm it’s poetic and full of colours. We have to be careful, though, not to settle into the beauty of the words and simply ride along on their rhythms.”
She’ll still get a chance to sing, since gospel tunes and folk melodies, all performed a cappella, provide the narrative’s backdrop.
“I was in an early workshop of Oil And Water” — it premiered last year in a sold-out run in St. John’s, a production by Artistic Fraud — “and I was surprised how well the two styles came together. I knew the spirituals but not the Newfoundland songs and we learned them separately. In performance, though, sometimes the songs are sung together, sometimes they’re used separately to support the scene, sometimes they’re like a movie soundtrack.”
Arranged by Andrew Craig, with additional arrangements by musical director Kellie Walsh, the show’s melodies include gospel numbers such as Motherless Child, Balm In Gilead and We Shall Overcome and Newfoundland melodies Stars Of Labrador, The St. Lawrence Miners Song and pieces by fiddler Rufus Guinchard.
The production is directed by Jillian Keiley, recently appointed the head of the National Arts Centre’s English-language theatre, who provided just the right atmosphere in the rehearsal hall.
“I love doing collaborative work where everyone’s treated as an equal,” says Bickersteth. “Jillian brought that feeling to rehearsals, even though no one got to rest much because we were all so busy all the time. She had these wonderful warm-up exercises that brought the group together and helped us get to know each other as people and as characters.”
Part of Factory Theatre’s annual Performance Spring Festival of works from across the country, Oil And Water is followed by designer Etai Erdal’s autobiographical How To Disappear Completely (presented by Vancouver’s Chop Theatre, May 8-13) and a workshop of Judith Thompson’s solo show Watching Glory Die (May 11-13).
