Mining Stories

Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere, Belgium
Booking Opens: 14 Aug
Matinee: 3.45pm, 29-30 Sept
Talking Theatre: 29 Sept, post-show (7.45pm), with Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere.
On the 5th of November 2015, a dam containing toxic mining waste collapsed in the mountains of the Brazilian mining region of Minas Gerais. A devastating flood of mud destroyed several villages and killed 19 people before flowing into the four hundred mile long river Rio Doce. In a region where more than three out of four people work in the mining industry, the disaster had profound environmental and social consequences.
Silke Huysmans grew up in Minas Gerais, close to the place where the disaster occurred. After twenty years away, she returned to Brazil accompanied by Hannes Dereere in order to speak to people affected by the tragedy and try to understand its far reaching consequences. The duo later conducted parallel interviews in Europe with specialists in economics and neurology.
Each interviewee tells the story of the disaster from their own perspective, with their own nuances and points of interest. Mining Stories is not a detective story or a reconstruction of the disaster, but an intriguing documentary theatre performance that journeys through a diverse collection of personal stories crossing topics such as memory, politics, religion and storytelling.
Performed in Portuguese, English and Dutch with English surtitles.