BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Residents of Raleigh County filled the Woodrow Wilson High School auditorium venue on Monday for Theatre West Virginia’s production of “Coal Country.”
The critically acclaimed production tells the story of 2010’s Upper Big Branch Mine disaster through the words not only of family members of those involved, but of those who were at the mine during the event.
“In the process of making this play, we came down to Raleigh County and interviewed folks,” said Jessica Blank, who created the production with Erik Jensen. Both were in attendance on this night, along with songwriting legend and musical director Steve Earle, who participated throughout the entire performance.
Blank continued, “95% of the dialogue in the play is taken directly from the interviews that we did with people. So we are not…coming in from someplace else saying ‘this is what we think the story of U.B.B. is,’ we came in, sat down with people, and said ‘tell us what the story of U.B.B. is.”
The show initially opened as an Off-Broadway production in New York, but in the words of Steve Earle, “the intention was always to bring it here, to West Virginia.” This intention came to fruition on Monday when the production – presented by national sponsor Audible – made its way to Beckley.
Earle, who composed the music for the program – which also appears on his acclaimed 2020 album, Ghosts of West Virginia – serves to move the narrative along, strumming his guitar and banjo side stage while assuming an almost narrator-like role.
Oftentimes Earle’s stark, rootys accompaniment works in conjunction with the dialogue and choreography of the actors on stage, occasionally to hypnotic effect and often as a means of building tension. It is in these moments – when the production’s seemingly minimal elements join in a harmonious cacophony before halting abruptly at the fever pitch – that it becomes clear how effectively silence is used as a storytelling device throughout “Coal Country.”
If the cast and script are the allegorical chess pieces in the presentation of this narrative, Earle and the expertly crafted soundtrack serve as the board upon which the pieces are presented with the capacity to carry out the task at hand.
From the all-hands-on deck performance of “Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” early on – which conjures images of mountain life and deeply bonded communities which have long-since become, to quote Leonard Cohen, “a shining artifact of the past” – to “Union, God and Country,” a sing-along declaration of coal mining and mountaineer pride, these melodies and arrangements bring life to the characters in a way that a script alone never could.
The musical accompaniment provides the production with the most significant, and perhaps most substantial, tonal shift when Earle forgos the acoustic guitar for the banjo and launches in the sinister, minor-key-leaning “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,” signaling the insertion of Massey Energy into the production’s narrative and foreshadowing the tragedy that all in attendance were aware was to transpire.
The cast commit fully to the production, eschewing the so-often pursued low hanging fruit of patronizing recreations of Southern West Virginian tone and dialect in favor of nuanced articulations which come as close to the real thing as one is likely to hear without making the trek down a Wyoming County holler.
Michael Laurence’s turn as Tommy Davis – an Upper Big Branch miner himself who lost three family members, a brother, nephew, and son, Corey, in the Upper Big Branch Disaster – was particularly moving.
In a performance which succinctly captured the idiosyncrasies of many Southern West Virginians this reporter has personally encountered, the raw authenticity of Laurence’s portrayal of Tommy not only evokes stark recollections of this period in West Virginia’s history, it transports the audience directly to the scene.
The hyper-realistic presentation only benefits from Blank and Jensen’s decision to let the West Virginia residents themselves do the talking, and the dialogue reflects an uncontrived honesty sorely lacking in many outside depictions of the Mountain State and its inhabitants.
The “Coal Country” cast received an extended and emotional standing ovation upon the program’s conclusion, before creators Blank and Jensen took the stage to address the audience.
Moments later, much to the delight of the hometown crowd, Steve Earle himself reemerged from the wings to treat the audience to a solo performance of some of his most beloved tunes, including “Guitar Town” and fan-favorite “Copperhead Road.”
Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, Earle regaled those in attendance with stories of how many of these songs came to be, and even stuck around to mingle with audience members at the close of the event.
One would be hard-pressed to find a more adequate representation of West Virginia life than what is presented in “Coal Country,” and its rendering of the atrocities incurred on the day of the Upper Big Branch Mining Disaster and the ensuing suffering of the miners’ families and loved ones will likely never be matched.
To find out more about Theatre West Virginia and upcoming events, visit the Theatre West Virginia website here.