DYING HARD
Play follows the lives of miners
One-woman play details hardships suffered by fluorspar miners.
Mikaela Dyke did her first solo Fringe show on a dare. Evidently she needs to thank the darers because her show has now garnered performance awards in London, Ottawa and Winnipeg and was named one of the Top Ten shows of 2011 by the Calgary Herald.
Dyke found the material for the show in a box of free books in Toronto. The book Dying Hard, written by Memorial University professor and Saskatchewan native Elliott Leyton, offers first-hand accounts of the lives of fluorspar miners in St. Lawrence, Nfld. In the 1970s, three communities practically died out because mine workers were suffering from cancer, silicosis, arthritis and a variety of lung diseases as a result of the terrible conditions under which they worked.
“The stories really moved me a lot, but more than that, there’s a part in the foreword where Leyton talks about how it’s one thing to read the stories and another to see someone tell you it,” she said.
After the dare, from a couple of fellow Fringe performers, she kept coming back to the stories and decided to base her first solo show on the people in the book. She contacted Leyton, who agreed to let Dyke not only take material from the book but repeat the stories verbatim.
Dyke plays six real-life people in the play, also called Dying Hard, and tells their stories in their own words. Each one has fascinating things to say. One character, who died at 45, had stints as an amateur boxer, a rum runner and Merchant Marine.
Though many performers would have the impulse to write an original script based on a really good story, it was important to Dyke that the characters be able to speak for themselves.
“Newfoundland has a really fantastic tradition of oral history and I think because of that and because of the way the language has developed there these stories are very eloquent in and of themselves,” she said. “It would be hard to match the way these people talk about their lives. They’re really phenomenal storytellers.”
Dyke had the chance to visit St. Lawrence and perform for the locals. The show has also toured across Canada. Though many people don’t have direct experience with mining, she said the stories will resonate for people everywhere.
Though the stories themselves are often heartbreaking, Dyke said the show is remarkably uplifting.
“It’s not a gloomy show because you come out of it thinking ‘Wow, what have I got to complain about?’ These people have such a great sense of humour and perspective on life. You come away from the show feeling very good about life and sad about what happened.”
Doing her first solo show has admittedly been challenging, but as with any difficult experience the learning has been huge.
“I’m putting faith in my own abilities on the line as well as time, money, resources. It is difficult but I’ve learned so much doing this. It was challenging but totally worth the challenge,” said Dyke.
She’s already written a second solo show, an interactive comedy, and the experience was far easier the second time around.
Dyke was born in Newfoundland and raised in Toronto. Her Fringe history began four years ago when she appeared in the play Reflections of Giving Birth to a Squid, which travelled to Saskatoon. Dying Hard debuted in 2010. This summer she is performing in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Victoria, but she tours with a variety of shows all year round.