The new play Oak by Terry Guest has a concise synopsis:
…a southern gothic horror about three kids, an old woman with a shotgun, and a mysterious creek monster.
Immediately attracted to the aesthetic, I was excited to have the opportunity to see a reading of Oak at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., recently.
It lives up to its description, but with many more layers: some mysterious, some dubious, some terrifying — and not all horrific things are monsters or even women with shotguns.
The play opens with the sounds of the woods, and actors whispering a mimicked collection of breezes, skittery birds, and crackling twigs. Its most familiar refrain, however, is a callback to a well-known question for some of us of a certain age:
It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?
The action centers on Pickle, a teenager who’s already hardened her edges against the world. Her cousin Suga is softer, wearing rose-colored glasses. Both are protective — if not sometimes annoyed — by Pickle’s little brother Big Man.
Pickle’s mother Peaches provides for the family by working at a burger joint, having put her own dreams on the back burner to raise her children alone.
But they all know where to find Odella Creek, and why it bears the name. As the story goes, a slave named Odella took a chance to escape, but left her baby behind. She drowned in the creek, and ever since, the town of Oak has been marred with spates of time when children go missing. So much so, the locals have named it Snatching Season.
It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?
Pickle, Suga, and Big Man all believe the legend of Odella to some extent — perhaps Peaches, too. But when Suga goes missing, and even an armed woman on the outskirts of town who’s rumored to have escaped Snatching Season can’t help, the lines between man and monster quickly blur.
In this world, the teenagers sway between childhood and adulthood, and younger Big Man finds himself begrudgingly accepting the hard truths that come with growing up.
Despite its dark turns, however, the heart of this play is in the family tree and the strength of its branches. It’s in the roots taken to stand against the wind, and to survive those forces we can’t control.
It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?
This production of Oak, written by Terry Guest, was directed by R.M. Lawrence and featured Nettie Chickering (Peaches); Maliyah Gramata-Jones (Pickle); Naire Poole (Suga), and Kristofer Wilson (Big Man), with Kathleen H. Soltan reading stage directions.
Oak was developed by Urbanite Theatre of Sarasota, Fla. as part of the 2020 Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission (Summer Dawn Wallace, Brendan Ragan; Co-Artistic Directors). Oak was first produced as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Urbanite Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre (Indianapolis, Ind.), and Alleyway Theatre (Buffalo, N.Y.). Oak is produced by special arrangement with the Independent Artist Group.
Photos c)jcs; full set
