About the Play:

Westray: The Long Way Home is a full-length drama by Chris O'Neill and Ken Schwartz based on the book Calculated Risk by Dean Jobb. When the Westray mine exploded, the human tragedy and suffering which resulted were chilling proof that the age-old price paid for coal is human blood. Westray: The Long Way Home is about five individuals who, in one way or another, were deeply marked by those events.

Westray: The Long Way Home traces the lives of an extended family prior to, during and after the 1992 methane-fuelled coal dust explosion that killed 26 miners at the Westray mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia. After the dead were laid to rest, the bureaucratic back-stabbing and corporate refusal of responsibility were all too familiar to followers of the history of mining and labour. Chris O'Neill and Ken Schwartz wrote the play after reading Dean Jobb's book Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics, and the Tragedy of Westray. They also listened to hours of taped interviews Jobb conducted with family and friends of the miners who died that May morning. While the characters are fictional, they're inspired by people the husband and wife artistic team met while wading through Jobb's research. Three of the play's five characters work at the mine. Together, the five represent Everyperson, Canada; people whose reliance on their weekly paycheques supersedes – in their minds, at least – any concerns they may have regarding their safety at work. Andrew and Pam have a young son, and they have just purchased their first home. Even though conditions at Westray are nearly subhuman, and the mine is known to be dangerously mismanaged, Andy, alongside his co-workers, must descend under the ground again and again because the livelihood of his loved ones rests on his shoulders. The Westray mine, they know, is a deathtrap waiting to happen, with regular cave-ins, coal dust, forced overtime, 12-hour shifts with no breaks and equipment malfunctions a part of the routine work-a-day world.  Westray: The Long Way Home gives a human face to the lives and families of the community that has suffered North America's worst mine disaster of the era.

Westray: the Long Way Home premiered in 1995 at the DeCoste Centre in Pictou, Nova Scotia and travelled to 11 other towns and cities in the province before a three-month, 60-date, cross-Canada tour.

Cast: 2 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Moving, funny, and ultimately hopeful, Westray, The Long Way Home is a universal story which will resonate deeply with audiences everywhere. Using both humor and drama, the play exposes the politics and power in the mine while never losing sight of the people most affected – the workers and their families." — The Edmonton Journal

"This is good, honest theatre." — The Calgary Herald

"What Schwartz and O'Neill have achieved is truly remarkable." —  CBC Radio

About the Playwrights:

Chris O'Neill is currently the executive director of the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, a multidisciplinary arts creation and education facility in Nova Scotia. She continues her active involvement in the theatre, both as a playwright and as an actress, by touring across Canada and Ireland as an apprentice with various theatres, most often with Two Planks and a Passion Theatre since 1992.

Ken Schwartz is a Canadian theatre director, playwright and arts activist. A graduate from both the technical production and directing programmes at the National Theatre School of Canada, he is Co-Artistic Director of Two Planks and a Passion Theatre in Canning, Nova Scotia, and is an executive on the Board of Directors of Theatre Nova Scotia.