Theater review: ‘Oil’ at Dallas’ Theatre Three

There’s a great play in the story of a mansion-dwelling southeast Texas family in 1987 reeling from plunging oil prices, family secrets and uncertain futures: Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate. Set in fictional Harrison, it was written in the 1980s and premiered in 1989, but didn’t make it to Broadway until 2009, opening a few months after Foote’s death.

Not to say there can’t be others, but Neil Tucker’s Oil won’t be on the list of “has potential” titles. Brimming with caricatures, laughable dialogue and pearl-clutching melodrama, the play is premiering at Theatre Three. Directed by Marty Van Kleeck, it was chosen by the late Jac Alder, who picked the 2015-16 season that was announced just weeks before his death in May 2015.

Oil was commissioned in 1988. After Tucker’s death in 1995, his daughter Raelle reworked it and added an ending. The script has been circulating, getting several readings at local theaters. But this Texas tea is beyond the hope for refinement.

Sycamore (John S. Davies) and Magritte Holes (Gene Raye Price) are the oil baron/baroness at a crumbling mansion in 1987 Houston, both still dreaming of another oil boom. Their hippie daughter Petite (Jenna Anderson) leads a commune called White Light on a patch of the Holes’ land and sees a future in clean energy. Their nephew Leroy (Greg Hullett), once seen as the heir to this kingdom until he left to discover himself, could still play a role in the estate.

With the exception of Leroy, these are all crude caricatures, with Magritte a drunken matriarch with Auntie Mame-like delusions of grandeur. Her alcoholism is so bad that she hides liquor in baby bottles.

The only character who can control her is Maudie (Patricia E. Hill), a strong-willed black maid who might as well have been written in the late 19th or early 20th century. If it’s going for a smarter-than-everyone maid like Moliere specialized in, it ends up bordering on offensive stereotype.

But not as face-smacking as the language bandied at Leroy, who is gay.

The Holeses throw a party where the guests include Middle East dignitaries, then-Vice President George Bush and Barbara, and celebrities. References to folks like Karl Rove and the younger George Bush (“That boy will never amount to anything,” Magritte says) are funny.

There are also mentions of the savings and loan scandal and discussions of the role of oil in war, which is still timely. But in all that the central focus of a family in disarray is glossed over. It’s an eye-rolling bore.

Davies gives a stately performance, and Price’s drunken party tirade is deserving of applause.

Bruce R. Coleman’s set (antler chandeliers, a pistol lamp stand, a gaudy bathroom) and Robin Armstrong’s costumes (shiny suits!) are fantastic.

But in the end, there’s not enough dishwashing liquid to clean up this disaster.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Theater review: ‘Oil’ at Dallas’ Theatre Three."