Yasmine Van Wilt’s piece about the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year is playing at Acquire Arts, a small gallery in Battersea with an even smaller performance space downstairs. Upstairs, are paintings by Louisiana residents affected by the spillage as well as an interactive paint- by-numbers piece. The colour key hints at the show to come, with black representing the barrels of oil unleashed by BP and white symbolising ‘the amount of faith
people can have in Big Oil’.
‘We’re Gonna Make You Whole’ is based on the testimonies of over a hundred ‘BP oil disaster survivors’ but the play’s characters are rinsed of the colour on display upstairs. Monologues from a scarred actress and a hardy documentary maker paint a relentlessly bleak picture. We learn of seals stuffed with oil, deformed babies, beaches scarred black and daddies burnt to a crisp.
Amidst the monologues are scenes between a husband and wife, Curtis and Rochelle, whose lives are corroding as quickly as the coastline. Oil rig worker Curtis (Lennard Sillevis) spends most of his time curled up on a couch, hugging his Budweiser. Occasionally, he picks up a guitar. Sillevis has a strong voice but his songs sound like a huskier Coldplay, oceans apart from the famous Louisiana jazz scene.
Pictures from the exhibition line the couple’s walls and it is here the residents find their voice again. A woman’s oily hair slides into the water and a girl dressed in pink watches her city sparkle and burn.