Consecrated Ground

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Consecrated Ground depicts the 1965 destruction of Halifax’s
Africville, once Canada’s largest and oldest African-Canadian
community. Long the subject of deliberate neglect, the community was
denied public services and was made the site of a dump, an abattoir, and
a prison before its residents were forcibly relocated in the name of
urban renewal.

In spite of the hardships they face, long-time residents such as
Clarice “Leasy” Lyle, one of the play’s central characters, cling
to the land their ancestors settled after the War of 1812. But while
Clarice has deep roots in Africville, her husband Willem, an Annapolis
native, wants to settle elsewhere. The betrayal Clarice suffers is
twofold: the city’s neglect causes the death of her son and her
community, while Willem’s desire for a better life makes his decision
to accept the city’s meagre compensation an act of complicity. This
sense of betrayal is played out on many sides: Reverend Minor, who
cooperates with the city in an effort to save his church finds that it
too will be bulldozed, while the naive white social worker who initially
believes in the official message of community help realizes that he has
been sent to do the city’s dirty work.

Although the frequent change in scene (ten in one act alone)
potentially fragment the play, background scrims representing changing
scenes alleviate this problem somewhat. More problematic is the
sometimes intrusive use of dialect and the potential improbability that
the town prostitute, Groovey, would be accepted with equanimity and
without comment into more conventional homes. Still, the play is an
effective one, with a heartbreaking conclusion.