Toxic hazards trouble a bright teenager in Next Act's 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down'
Thyme (Jada Jackson), the science-minded teen at the heart of "Splash Hatch on the E Going Down," is both a nerd and a prophet, two kinds of human beings that often wear out the people around them, even when they are right.
And as many figures in scripture will tell you, being a prophet doesn't exempt you from suffering, either.
Cheryl Lynn Bruce directs Next Act Theatre's season-opening production of Kia Corthron's 1997 drama.
When Next Act artistic director Cody Estle announced this season, he called "Splash Hatch" "way ahead of its time" in its treatment of environmental justice. Estle was right. This drama wrestles with climate change, toxic waste, urban inequity and lack of health insurance in an urgently contemporary way.
Thyme, a pregnant high schooler, and her young husband Erry (Joseph Brown Jr.) live in Harlem with her parents Marjorie (Kristin E. Ellis) and Ollie (James Carrington). It's a loving family but one that needs to watch every nickel.
Thyme's library card must be nearly worn out, because she's using it constantly to borrow books about the environment and other science topics. Jackson radiates enthusiasm as her Thyme discourses on embryology, describing from memory what changes will happen each week to the baby growing inside her.
At first, Thyme's mini-discourses on environmental hazards and resource conservation are nearly straight out of the books she's reading. But after Erry goes to work for a demolition company and begins experiencing health problems, these dangers become more personally troubling.
As bright as she is, Thyme's still just a teenager, and she's not always good at reading the room. "Why you commercialin' me," her down-to-earth friend Shaneequa (Malaina Moore), also pregnant, asks after one of Thyme's lectures.
As a health situation darkens, Thyme's preaching increasingly becomes a flight from feeling the human pain around her. In a memorable scene, her calm and grounded mother calls her out for what and who she is neglecting.
"Splash Hatch" (the title refers to the water birth Thyme plans to have) doesn't solve the problems of toxic sites and environmental hazards being disproportionately located where poorer people and people of color live. But it reminds us, with a mixture of dignity and bluntness, how those hazards affect individual human beings.
Next Act will present a Black Out Night performance of "Splash Hatch" at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30, during which an all Black-identifying audience can watch the show together. Contact the Next Act office for more information.
If you go
Next Act Theatre performs "Splash Hatch on the E Going Down" through Oct. 15 at 255 S. Water St. For tickets, visit nextact.org or call (414) 278-0765.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Toxic hazards trouble a bright teenager in Next Act's 'Splash Hatch'
