Delaware Theatre Company presents The Chequerboard Watch

A “chequerboard watch” was the term for the mixed-race crews on those vessels, and this show is set aboard the clipper Blue Jacket on her maiden voyage. Built for stamina and speed, she’s introduced by Billy (Mark Aldrich), the ship’s shantyman. Sea shanties (led by a singing sailor) coordinated a ship’s onboard work and provided emotional release during long evenings at sea.

A tale for all

Each of the 11 sailors represents a type of crewman onboard such a vessel, and each has a song to sing and a tale to tell. The Blue Jacket is captained by the stern, unyielding John Edwards (Kevin Toniazzo-Naughton), whose dubious actions and implacable rigor cause the vessel’s difficulties. Edwards was hired to outpace a rival and deliver the first crop of wool from Australia, and his first mate Mr. Kit (Beatrice Owens) is responsible for relaying his orders to the sailors, increasingly difficult as challenges mount.

This crew has previously sailed with the team of Edwards and Kit, and they greet one another with a song (“South Australia”) as they come onboard. Each man’s differing background and origin story generates the show’s forward motion as, despite clashes, the men work together in a way not possible on land.

Bosun (Cullen Hussey), a Scot, leads the crew. The sensitive Ansel (Marcus A. Brooks) hails from Jamaica, whose rhythms define the first-act song “Hold di Faith, Hold di Line”. Italian cook Giuseppe (Will Stephen Connell) responds hysterically to the many shipboard superstitions, while Solomon (Jordan Michael Owens) hails from the Carolinas and provides the steady presence his name suggests.

First-time sailor Philip (Eric Peters), an Englishman with no real onboard experience, is at first an object of suspicion. Gentle Enoch (Philipe Jean-Louis) is the ship’s carpenter and a former slave whose trauma renders him mute. Stowaway James Farrell (Tom Geiger) is escaping the Irish famine, and second mate Francis (Nichalas L. Parker), from the West African Igbo culture, longs to return to his homeland.

To outpace his rival, Edwards plots a controversial route, increasing the growing rift with his first mate that precipitates an onboard crisis. As predicted by Mr. Kit, the Blue Jacket becomes stranded in “the doldrums”, that tropical calm feared by sailors, who become despondent and then violent as they wait for wind and fairer weather.

A strong and savvy work in development

A crew of devoted collaborators is responsible for The Chequerboard Watch, conceived during the COVID crisis and developed in the US and in London over five years. The story is by Jack Denman, Eyakeno Ekpo, Selena Seballo, and DTC artistic director Mimi Warnick. Seballo wrote the show’s serviceable (sometimes predictable) book and lyrics. The production is underscored by the rangy, effective music (though some could be tailored a bit) of Denman, who conducts an excellent offstage orchestra.

Warnick stages The Chequerboard Watch with savvy brio and warm regard for its characters. The show’s cast is uniformly strong and winning, filled with excellent singers who each have an onstage solo moment. Several melodramatic plot twists help to propel the narrative, with welcome dramatic scenes amid the musical bonhomie that sometimes suffuses the action. Though strong in concept and eminently watchable, the production is still a work in development.

In a setting with unfamiliar jobs and jargon, characters are so swiftly introduced that it takes effort to delineate them. Some narrative threads are left unresolved—like the complex relationship of Captain Edwards and Mr. Kit—and some resolve a little too neatly, like Enoch’s turnaround or the acceptance of upper-class newbie Philip. And the storm that overtakes the Blue Jacket leaps upon the audience (and the cast) a little too swiftly.

Evoking the sea

The show’s technical aspects are first-rate. Krista Franco’s evocative set, with its masts and ropes, hatches and stairs and hiding places, is a visual standout, with usable playing spaces—the captain’s more luxurious aerie and the work-a-day decks—clearly delineated. Costumes by Katherine Fritz suggest the seaman’s life and provide ample ease for Alison Liney’s movement and nautical-influenced choreography.

Barrymore-winner Alyssandra Docherty’s luscious lights evoke the constantly changing colors of both sky and water, and the soundscape of Damien Figueras renders the sea ever-present. Kudos to him and DTC audio engineer Mark Valenzuela for the most effective and unobtrusive amplified sound yet heard in this intimate venue.

Beyond the cargo

As the audience enters, actual sea shanties set the mood, and the show’s music carries that tradition forward. In Act I’s “Old Black Joe”, the company sings that “the sea don’t care about the color of a man.” The show concludes with the affecting and well-sung “Billy’s Chorale”, and the song “Among Brothers” that opens Act II and is reprised at the end encapsulates the search for camaraderie and acceptance that is show’s overarching theme.

In her director’s note, Warnick says that when these clipper ships dominated the seas, they carried “something more profound” than cargo; they carried “a vast exchange of culture.” With its thoughtful exploration of diverse stories, traditions, and music, The Chequerboard Watch invites us to reflect on the commonalities that bind us all.

Know before you go: this production includes onstage fights, a simulated gunshot, and stage fog.

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