The Unknown Country: 
Plays by rising Canadian writers take New York
Robert Chafe's Oil and Water, Directed by Passion
Lucian Frangione's Leave of Absence and Aaron Bushkowsky's After Jerusalem 
featured in latest Unknown Country showcase at 
The Workshop Theater Company  

"We were not in Newfoundland, the setting of Oil and Water by acclaimed 
St. John’s playwright Robert Chafe. We were in the Jewel Box Theatre, a small 
room on the fourth floor of an off-off-Broadway building in Manhattan. On the 
coldest and snowiest week of the young new year in New York, the tiny house was 
full. Of Canada.

Oil and Water was the second play in the run. It’s the true story of 
two African-American U.S. naval cadets whose vessel, the U.S.S. Truxtun, hit a 
glacier in 1942 off the coast of Newfoundland, killing more than 200. 

 "And as the Newf accents rang out in Oil and Water, you were reminded 
of the particularly Canadian moral accent in the plays: the primacy of tolerance 
toward The Other."

The crowd applauded with genuine admiration, then filed into the tiny lobby 
for a cosy wine and cheese reception, mingling with the cast and staff. 
Fizzard  and Roncetti popped the corks and New York felt warmer than usual for January.