An earnest response to the 2010 BP oli spill off the Gulf of Mexico is let down by excessive theatricals.
Taking its name from the literature handed out by an oil company after a colossal spill, Yasmine Van Wilt’s latest play deals with a community pushed to breaking point. She presents us with a conveyer belt of misery as the inhabitants of a seaside town in Florida suffer increasingly horrible illnesses while their beaches turn black and a wilfully incompetent oil company puts more people at risk by hiring them to clean up the spill. In her efforts to present the enormity of the scale of human destruction, Van Wilt overloads her audience and fragments her play, but the success of this production lies in its earnest but troubled central characters.
At the heart of the play are a young couple. Rochelle is coming to the end of her studies, about to start work for a big firm, and Curtis is looking for a job having worked himself to the bone trying to clean up the spill. Their paradoxical situation is inescapable and we soon discover Curtis was working on the rig at the time of the accident and his compensation will suffer because of the money he earnt cleaning it up. Add to this, multiple health problems, fear of babies being born deformed, a cousin doing some controversial research and the rest of their family up and leaving town, Curtis still has his pride to fight for.
His relationship with Rochelle has us fixated as the two of them engage in some absorbingly real arguments that show Van Wilt’s ear for dialogue. Her continuing ambitions in the face of adversity meet his well intentioned attempts to get them out of financial straits, but both of them are ill and still at odds over what to do next. When their fights become quiet, we hear from a neighbour who relates her concerns directly to the audience as though she’s being interviewed. The two aspects work well because of their simplicity.
Brought together, they do what theatre does best: storytelling. But the play occasionally veers off into Curtis’ nightmares where he's haunted by a dead shipmate he may or may not have had an affair with. She's played by the already beautiful Van Wilt in a sexy red dress, covered in blood and burns, and ranting at Curtis about his loyalties. The dramatics here belong in another production, something intended to shock, frighten and probably confuse. It feels at odds with the rest of the play, which is a cleverly put-together eye-opener that's worth seeing.
We're Gonna Make You Whole is the first part of a trilogy of plays by Yasmine Van Wilt exploring the legacy of last years BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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