The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge

The first of three plays in this saga of one of Canada’s wealthiest and most ruthless families, The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge 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 win 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. A version of Parts One and Two of this series has been performed annually at the Nanaimo Festival for several years