cullud Wattah
April 25, 2014, the nightmarish dream-like date that Flint, Michigan, residents would love to forget. The Flint water and public health crisis started during a budget crisis when government officials changed from treated Detroit water to the Flint River. As a result, residents began to complain about the water's taste, smell, and appearance. Unfortunately, officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors (decreases the corrosion rate of a material), which caused poisoning from aging pipes leaking into the drinking water, which scientific studies found contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria.
Written by Blk feminist poet-playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by the incredible, multi-talented Lili-Anne Brown, Victory Gardens brings to the stage cullud wattah. Brown's brilliance and impeccable foresight regarding how the audience should interpret the writer's directive prove that she belongs in the elite class of directors.
The drama of the events in Flint, Michigan, started even before you walked into the auditorium. Theater patrons can review a timeline of the Flint nightmare and learn that the budget crisis in Flint began in 2011 when then-Governor Snyder appointed an emergency manager to Flint.
The powerful graphic scenic design by Sydney Lynne is a story within itself. Throughout, bottles with contaminated water and empty plastic bottles symbolize how the need for clean, uncontaminated water was like air itself. The cast counts and provide the date and year of contaminated water; they even have to remember how much water they need to drink, cook and bathe. Even the silence in this play is mesmerizing.
The play begins with Plum (Demetra Dee) appearing from the darkness, writing down the number of days Flint has been without clean water. These chalk lines can be seen throughout the set. Then the cast begins to sing a song similar to the old negro spiritual song, Wade In The Water. Harriet Tubman used the song to warn escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water to avoid the dogs' (from slavecatchers) who couldn't sniff out their route. However, the forewarning here in cullud wattah warned people that lead was in the water.
“Lead in the water, lead in the water, children. Lead in the water. Snyder playing god with water.”
It's 2016, and Flint's residents have been without clean water for 936 days. Marion (Brianna Buckley) is a third-generation General Motors assembly line worker and the only person working in the family who stresses over impending layoffs at the plant. The poisonous water has affected them all, with Plum having cancer, Reesee (Ireon Roach) females issues, a growing rash on her arm, and Marion with rashes on her stomach.
However, when Ainee (Sydney Charles), who is pregnant, joins a group meeting to discuss a class action lawsuit, Marion has trepidations about how joining the case could lose her job. As Ainee learns more about how Flint covered up evidence and how unfair residents of color were treated when trying to get information, help, and supplies, the family learns even more secrets were kept from them by one family member.
Tempers flare, family lines are drawn, and a life is lost - and all of the women agonize whether they will ever have clean water again.
This cast of five extraordinary women is so compelling in their roles that you couldn't single any one outstanding performance because they were all exceptional. Including Renée Lockett as the quintessential Big Ma, these ladies provide an enthralling performance that chills your soul.
“Quote - 36.7k of Flint lives below the poverty line.”
I genuinely hope audiences will walk away understanding the magnitude of the profound message that writer Erika Dickerson-Despenza is conveying on how a few people can change the lives of millions by not reflecting on the cost and the loss others will endure (Roe v. Wade). Instead, through the capitulation to capitalize on avarice (38.8% of Flint in poverty), residential racism (over half of the population is African-American), and fear of retribution, people will look the other way, selling their souls and the lives of loss for the love of money.
Lies and lying to the public ensnared the Flint residents with sicknesses like cancer, long-term effects of lead poisoning, increased chance of Alzheimer's disease, and Legionnaires' disease. The unfortunate thing about tragedies like the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which is still not resolved, is that we forget about it when the next big tragedy hits. As a result, Flint is still without clean water today. The city claims to continue replacing the remaining residential lead water pipes at no cost to residents by September 2022.
One of the most profound messages in this play reads, "There's money in war; there's war in money." The US provides millions to help with wars. However, after government officials from the city of Flint, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, and eight other officials were charged with 34 felony counts and seven misdemeanors—41 counts in all—for their role in the crisis; Flint resident is still without clean water. For eight years, residents of Flint, the largest city in Genesee County, Michigan, have been living without clean water, still fearing long-time diseases. On the day we went to see the play, Flint residents had been living 2,981 days without clean water. But thanks to plays like cullud wattah, their plight lives on.
The noteworthy, unmistakable brilliance of cullud wattah is that the writer, director, and actors are like silhouettes in this production, choosing to have the audience focus more on the meaning than their contribution and performers, which can be seen during the impacting ending!
Let's Play Theatrical Review Highly Recommends cullud wattah.
Victory Gardens
cullad wattah
Written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown
June 15 - July 17, 2022
