The Chicago premiere of Terry Guest’s “Oak” at Raven Theatre is a Southern Gothic ghost story that simultaneously tackles too many subjects and shies away from a crucial one soon after introducing it.
Set in a small town and the nearby forest in rural Georgia, the 90-minute one act centers on a lower-middle-class family struggling to get by under adverse circumstances ranging from racism to the risks of “snatching season.” Single mom Peaches (Brianna Buckley) has given up her dream of moving to California and works hard at Krystal’s Cafe to provide for her 9-year-old son, Big Man (Donovan Session), and 16-year-old daughter, Pickle (Jazzy Rush), and to keep them safe.
In an evening that careens between super-real and surreal, Pickle leads off with a prologue that’s a classic campfire story. It’s about an enslaved woman named Odella who disappeared in a creek while running away after having to leave her infant daughter behind. Now her ghost, the Odella Creek Monster, snatches several children annually and takes them to the bottom of the creek. And as news updates broadcast from an old-fashioned television at the edge of the stage indicate, the authorities pay a lot more attention when the kidnapped children are white than when they are Black.
Peaches thinks the culprit is human and is determined to keep her children from disappearing. Pickle, who chafes at her mother’s rules and is desperate to escape her surroundings, also is skeptical; however, when her cousin and “bestie” Suga (Stephanie Mattos) claims the monster is after her and then disappears, the siblings go on a quest through the woods to find out what happened and uncover more layers of Black Southern history and family history.
While Guest unfortunately leaves relevant horrific specifics of family history unexplored, Pickle and Big Man’s adventures peak in their encounter with B-movie worthy First Lady Temple (Buckley), a crazy shotgun-wielding old woman who supposedly survived a run-in with Odella, speaks in riddles and reveals essential information. We also get to see the affection between the siblings, who otherwise seem to be squabbling most of the time.
On the other hand, some of the scenes become repetitive and, under Mikael Burke’s otherwise sound direction, there is much too much screaming, especially when Pickle and Peaches are fighting. I wasn’t at all convinced by the adult Session playing a child of nine, but generally, the performances are strong. Rush stands out as Pickle, a complicated, smart and engaging teenager who just wants to be able to have a life.
Cunning, quasi-cinematic design elements include Sydney Lynne’s deceptively straightforward set, Eric Watkins’ evocative lighting design (effectively using darkness, too), Mariah Bennett’s props (many of them common household objects that appear when necessary), Caitlin McLeod’s puppetry design and Ethan Korvne’s spooky original sound and music.
This year seems to be a good one for Halloween-friendly shows and, despite some shortcomings, “Oak” belongs on that list.
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