Moonlight Schooner is a swirling storm of ideas and poetry

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• Title: Moonlight Schooner
• Written by: Kanika Ambrose
• Directed by: Sabryn Rock
• Performed by: Nehassaiu deGannes, Daren A. Herbert, Jamie Robinson, danjelani ellis, Tony Ofori
• Company: Necessary Angel in association with Canadian Stage and Tarragon Theatre
• Venue: Berkeley Street Theatre
• City: Toronto
• Year: Runs until Dec. 14

Kanika Ambrose’s Moonlight Schooner, not unlike Shakespeare’s Tempest, opens with a harrowing storm. The subsequent shipwreck – on this occasion, just off the coast of St. Kitts – evokes familiar feelings of upheaval and turmoil. But in this world, that’s nothing a little booze can’t fix – just so long as it’s consumed out of sight from the hovering threat of imperialism.

There’s a lot to appreciate in Ambrose’s portrait of what it means to exist as a Black man in 1958. Moonlight Schooner is sprawling in scope, and, much like a storm, the play contains fleeting moments of extraordinary beauty, thunderclaps of tenderness that reverberate throughout the intimate Berkeley Street Theatre. (That evocative opening sequence works in large part thanks to Thomas Ryder Payne’s immersive sound design.)

But in director Sabryn Rock’s uneven staging, Moonlight Schooner never quite reaches its full, elemental potential. The story isn’t always clear – a common byproduct of works with competing timelines – and in places, it’s downright confusing.

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It’s a shame – and quite a surprise – that the piece doesn’t work better. For the last few years, Ambrose and Rock have created clear-eyed, dagger-sharp theatre about Black diasporas across time – 2022’s our place and 2024’s Truth each won a Dora Award for best new play in their respective divisions.

And only a few weeks ago, Ambrose and director Philip Akin opened The Christmas Market – one of the best new plays of 2025, about temporary foreign workers on a farm in Ontario – in the teeny studio space at Crow’s Theatre.

Moonlight Schooner isn’t a total loss: Ambrose’s script smartly skewers gender roles, and Rock’s direction brings those jabs to life with funny poise. (Des’ree Gray’s period-appropriate costumes include decidedly feminine aprons and sundresses for the men of Rock’s cast.) Anita Nittoly’s fight choreography, as well, is electric – the several fistfights that break out on stage are almost frighteningly realistic.

But it’s the story where Moonlight Schooner feels foamy. When we meet Timothy (Daren A. Herbert), Shabine (Jamie Robinson), Vincy (danjelani ellis) and Lyle (Tony Ofori), they’re reeling from their time at sea. Some are seasick; others are ravenous for the unexpected time on dry land.

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Their impromptu night off the clock soon becomes existential – all at once, it becomes clear that the play is as much about the women in the sailors’ lives as it is about the sailors themselves. One by one, we meet the wives, mothers and girlfriends at the periphery of the Windrush generation, which saw Caribbean men ship out to Britain to help rebuild after the Second World War.

The women’s problems, the men say, are inconsequential compared to the toils of seafaring and Scotch-smuggling. (Never mind the psychological toll of solo child-rearing.)

Even as the men enjoy their night, with alcohol on their breath and songs in their hearts, the darkness of the era is clear, the lingering scars that will filter down to future generations. Imperialism, Ambrose seems to say, has the power to undercut even the merriest of times.

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It’s tough to assess where the disconnect occurs: Moonlight Schooner features a striking premise, a typically strong creative team and an extraordinarily accomplished slate of onstage talent. That said, it’s worth noting that the world premiere’s cast experienced an unusual amount of turnover in the lead-up to opening night: The unexpected passing of Michael Blake, to whom the production is dedicated, prompted one of three cast shake-ups since the team was announced earlier this year.

Still, the cast isn’t the squeaky wheel here – all five offer deeply considered, ebullient performances. Robinson’s take on poet Shabine is heart-wrenching; Ofori’s buoyant portrayal of young children, as well, is particularly effective, and adds a welcome injection of levity into the 90-minute affair.

Perhaps the issue comes from Rock’s choice to stage Moonlight Schooner with an eye toward abstraction – Shannon Lea Doyle’s ship-sized set doesn’t tell us much about the play’s more prevalent settings, nor does it help grease the transitions between timelines. Rock and Ambrose’s previous collaborations were largely rooted in naturalism, but then again, Moonlight Schooner deals in poetry: Some creative tinkering with the limits of time and space ought to work reasonably well.

In the end, perhaps it’s best to think of Moonlight Schooner as an extension of that gorgeous storm in its exposition, a ritual spring-loaded with short booms of cleansing, cathartic beauty. Did it work for me? Not as well as I hoped. But if ever there were a play to let wash over you, with its waves of nostalgic, aching societal critique, it’s this one.

Editor’s note: In a previous version of this article, Daren A. Herbert and Tony Ofori were misidentified based on information provided by the production's publicity team. In the third photo, Herbert is at left and Ofori second from left.