Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO - A Vagrant Theatre and up-and-coming actor Mikaela Dyke shed light on one of Canada’s least known tragedies in Dying Hard, playing at Tarragon Theatre Extra Space Mar 13-18.
In 1970s Newfoundland, three entire communities were dying out because their men had spent the last four decades working in the fluorspar mines under deplorable conditions that caused them to develop cancer, silicosis, arthritis and a variety of lung diseases. Several of the last survivors of the town of St. Lawrence, NFLD, had their thoughts, fears, and desperate hopes recorded for posterity by a visiting professor from Memorial University, and in Dying Hard, Mikaela Dyke brings these voices to vivid life. It’s a particularly poignant time to revisit these stories in light of the recent announcement that the fluorspar mine at St. Lawrence may soon reopen.
The six characters Dyke presents in her new piece – adapted verbatim from Professor Elliott Leyton’s published interviews – tell spectacular stories from their lives, cut short by the mines where they made their living wage. A father of twenty-one recalls Victory Day in Halifax. A wife details the illness taking her husband and brothers. A man, crushed working in the mines, cracks jokes about his pain. As these men and women grieve the devastation of their bodies and their community, they reveal the humanity behind an industrial carnage and present a timely cautionary tale amid ongoing controversy in Canada’s mining of asbestos, oil, and gas.
Newfoundland native Mikaela Dyke is a seasoned artist who has performed in theatre and improv scenes across Canada. Dying Hard has been performed on tours throughout Atlantic Canada and at Fringe Festivals in London, Calgary, and Ottawa to critical acclaim and awards including: Outstanding Performance: London and Ottawa Fringes; Female Performance of the Year, Beat (London); Best Female Performance of Winnipeg Fringe, CBC; Top Ten shows of 2011, Calgary Herald.
WHEN: March 13-17 at 8pm, March 17-18 at 2:30pm
WHERE: Tarragon Theatre Extra Space (30 Bridgman Ave)
TICKETS: $25, $20 for students/arts workers
Box Office: 416-531-1827 or
http://tickets.tarragontheatre.com
WHO: Performed by Mikaela Dyke
Adapted from interviews taken by Prof. Elliot Leyton
Dahlia Katz (director)
Produced by A Vagrant Theatre in association with
The Theatre Elusive
2012-02-09
Toronto: A Vagrant Theatre presents verbatim theatre piece “Dying Hard” March 13-18