Heartache and humor shine in Oakland Theater Project’s premiere of ‘A Thousand Ships’

A Thousand Ships is an amusing and touching generation-spanning theatrical experience about two Black women’s lives, dreams and the community they built around their Oakland hair salon.

Marcus Gardley’s creative writing and Oakland Theater Project co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran’s imaginative direction bring home this dramatic tale of love, loss and healing. The story is revealed by talented actors who make us know and identify with their characters.

Adeline (Halili Knox) and Laney (Dawn Troupe) meet as young women during World War II when they travel to California to work in the shipyards. We watch their lives progress through scenes that shift back and forth through time. As real life takes hold, Adeline and Laney forego some personal dreams. But the two are proud of their hair salon, whose customers, the African-American but Republican self-proclaimed First Lady of an Oakland Hills church (Rolanda D. Bell) and her very pregnant assistant, Diamond (Jasmine Milan Williams), become family.

The present-day time frame of A Thousand Ships is 2008, on the optimistic eve of President Obama’s first election. Adeline now has two grown children: a daughter, Oakland police officer Laurel (Sam Jackson), and a son, community nonprofit leader Mac (William Hartfield). Despite Laurel’s accomplishments and loyalty to her mother, Adeline greatly favors her son Mac, who is wanted by the FBI for financial shenanigans that depleted Adeline and Laney’s savings. And what’s more, the rent for the hair salon is months overdue. But, out of these crises comes change, love and renewal.

It has been a pleasure to observe Gardley’s playwrighting career over the past 10 years, from Berkeley Rep’s The House That Will Not Stand to Cal Shakes Black Odyssey and Lear.

He continues, with talent, honesty and love, to “write what he knows” about the truth about our East Bay community and the strong Black women who reside here. (All the characters are named after Oakland streets and neighborhoods.)  He also wrote the screenplay of the recent new musical, The Color Purple).

A Thousand Ships is a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission, conceived initially and awarded to Cal Shakes to build on the success of Gardley’s 2017 production of black odyssey. Happily, the Oakland Theater Project can now present the play — but only until Jan. 5. Although it is a bit long and could withstand some editing, it is a powerful piece of theater performed with wit and heart.

A Thousand Ships plays Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Jan. 5 at The Flax Building, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$60. Masks are required at Friday performances and are optional for all other performances. Purchase tickets at the Oakland Theater Project or call (510) 646-1126.  A Thousand Ships runs over two hours, plus an intermission.