AJAs 2017 Finalists
Attachments
| Slug/Label | Review of Rig, a play about the Ocean Ranger disaster |
|---|---|
| Date Aired or Published | February 10, 2023 |
| Media outlet where first aired or published: | The Independent |
| Name of Program: | Arts & Culture |
| If co-produced, list partner: | |
| Location: | St. John's |
| List awards, grants: | |
| Running time (TV/Radio): | |
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Short explanation of the story and how it developed: “The Weight of Words” is a piece about RIG, a play about the Ocean Ranger disaster, but it’s also about the tragedy itself, how to remember it, why it still matters, and how art—both making it and engaging with it—provides essential space to meaningfully address and process large-scale tragedies. February 15 is a day of mourning in Newfoundland and Labrador as it marks the anniversary of the 1982 sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig. All of the 84 men onboard died that night. It’s considered Canada’s worst tragedy at sea since WWII. Leading up to the anniversary, RIG, was scheduled to run at our local theatre. I wanted to see the show and potentially review it, but I was also hesitant to write about something so important to my province’s own collective memory which had already been memorialized so many times before. As a child who grew up in the 1980s, I also had my own memories of the event and its lasting impact. I wasn’t sure if I’d have the critical distance I needed to approach it. But the play ended up providing a wonderful conduit to revisit and reflect on the reality of what happened, and why it still matters in the present. It also offers a model for how to engage with tragedy and grief more generally. The play is verbatim theatre, so actors speak the words spoken by real people. The words are from a book by the same name, an oral history made up of first-hand accounts of those affected by the disaster. I arranged an interview with the director Joan Sullivan, and one of the actors, Wendi Smallwood. I hadn’t seen the play yet, and I didn’t know what the story would be. I asked open-ended questions and let the women guide the conversation. I was struck by how deeply knowledgeable they were about the Ocean Ranger, the event and everything leading up to it and following it. I was also struck by the deeply personal relationship they seemed to have to the characters in the play and the real people they’re based on. After seeing an advanced performance of the play, I was able to see their participation as its own practice of grieving--not some abstract national tragedy but an embodied communal loss on an individual, human scale. Newfoundland and Labrador is still very much involved in the offshore oil industry, and has endured other disasters since the Ocean Ranger. Just remembering the Ocean Ranger in name, is clearly not enough--it’s how we remember it that matters. RIG turned out to be a worthy example of how to bear witness to a tragedy in a way that restores the humanity of those who not only died but were dehumanized by their corporate employers. Writing about the play, bringing together my own conversations with the director, the research I did on the Ocean Ranger, and my own personal reflections added more layers of connection to the event and strengthened its continued relevance. We don’t have the accounts of the men who were lost, but what we have are the words of those left behind. RIG’s way of amplifying and supporting their voices, and this pieces engagement with them, shows how art—and theatre in particular—helps us address tragedy and grief as a community elevating human life at a time when it is constantly being devalued. |
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Resources of the newsroom (money and time) available to complete the story: 15 hours for interviewing, transcribing, researching, writing, and revising ($300). |
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