We accept PayPal, Visa & Mastercard
through our secure checkout.
|
The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge
The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge
|
Author: Rod Langley Publisher: Talonbooks (cover image may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 103 Pub. Date: 1991 ISBN-10: 0889222975 ISBN-13: 9780889222977 Cast Size: 2 female, 6 male
|
About the Play:
The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the
Edge is a full-length
drama by Rod Langley.
The play
chronicles the journey of
Robert and Joan Dunsmuir,
who settled in Nanaimo in 1853. Dunsmuir was a mine worker who
eventually became a coal baron. A gritty history of the
tough-as-nails family who rose from poverty to become one of B.C.'s
most respected, yet reviled families.
The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the
Edge is
about the Scottish immigrant and industrial magnate Robert Dunsmuir
who, with his discovery of coal, virtually founded Nanaimo's corner
of the world. The play
chronicles the disgrace and exile of Robbie Dunsmuir from
Scotland, the settlement of his family as indentured labourers to the
Hudson's Bay Company in the Nanaimo coalfields, and his application
of "scab" labour tactics which won him an independent
prospector's licence from the company. His discovery of a vast coal
deposit on Vancouver Island, and his scramble to first finance and
then gain control over the Wellington Mine on this site, over the
literally dead bodies of his friends and supporters, brings this play
to a stunning climax. The
Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge
is the first of two
plays chronicling the saga of one of Canada's wealthiest, most ruthless, and ill fated families.
The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the
Edge
premiered
in 1988 at the
Chemainus Theatre Festival in the seaside community of Chemainus, BC.
A version of both
plays in
The Dunsmuirs
series
has been performed annually at the Nanaimo Festival for several
years.
Cast: 2 female, 6 male
What people say:
"The story of the Dunsmuirs is
a hell of a tale that's got everything." — Victoria
Times-Colonist
"The Dunsmuirs:
Alone at the Edge ... Rod Langley's
story of Nanaimo's dynastic coal-mining family is a stirring saga of
adventure, struggle, romance, and union-busting. Who'd have thought
Nanaimo was the Dallas of the North?" — The
Province
About the Playwright:
Rod Langley
is a Canadian is a
playwright and director. He was
born in Australia, moved to Canada in his teens, and has lived in
Nanaimo, BC for
many years. His published work includes two plays about the Dunsmuir
family coal barons and a play about Norman Bethune. He has also
produced a number of
documentary films on the history of Nanaimo.
|
|
|
|