Terry Guest’s Oak Is a Horror That Hits Home

The horror in playwright Terry Guest’s new play, Oak, is the kind that feels real — a ghost story that proves "free" always has a price and "No" is a complete sentence. Black Americans, drawing on our historical past, know that horror is real, existing in the corners of the worlds we see and touch, and those we cannot. Oak compels us to face this profound truth.

Set in Oak, a fictitious small town in Georgia during the rainy season, the play follows three young cousins: the determined and fearless teenager Pickle (Ember Tate-Steele), her charming and annoying nine-year-old brother Big Man (PK Fortson), and their nervous, ready-to-fight cousin Suga (Dasia Cervi). The trio introduces us to the legend of Odella Creek, named after the swampy, dark waterway and the ghost who haunts it. Odella, a beautiful, enslaved teenager, died in the creek while trying to run to freedom, leaving behind a baby fathered by a white master. Now, Odella snatches children every rainy season, forever attempting to recover the child she lost.

Ultimately, this is a story about missing and stolen Black children.​ It is also, crucially, about stolen childhood. It forces us to confront how society, parents, communities, and lawmakers dismiss, take, and actively steal the ideal of a safe, protected childhood from Black children in America.

The sadness and sorrow of Oak is the recognition that childhood is still not promised to all children. For many Black Americans, the idea of having a childhood — a time solely dedicated to growth, learning, and play — is a recent phenomenon of privilege. In the historical past Odella experienced, childhood ended when you were old enough to carry something while you walked. For Black and poor children, childhood was a privilege, not a right.

Director Dawn Meredith Simmons said she works on creating theater that makes the audience either lean back or lean forward. She achieves that here. This production will make you laugh a lot, jump a lot, and, if you are like me, you may cry.

The ensemble cast works exceptionally well together to tell this expertly woven story. Vernia Sharisse Garvin grabs you as Peaches, a young single mother many may recognize who gave up her own childhood to keep her family together despite creek monsters, and ghosts of men and their painful mistakes. PK Fortson delivers a truly outstanding performance, captivating as a tall boy who wants to remember his father. Ember Tate-Steele is electric in her role, expertly carrying the narrative momentum as the fearless Pickle. Rounding out the trio, Dasia Cervi provides a potent counterpoint as the nervous Suga, giving a powerful performance in a non-musical role.

Don’t miss Justin LaHue’s incredibly beautiful dark and eerie set and the atmospheric lights and sound design by Emma Schimminger

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