★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Mill, Angas. 5 Mar 2025
“England. 2020. Pinderfields Hospital. COVID lockdown. 2:20 a.m.
A man fights for each breath, determined to make it home to Dot. In his isolated, morphine-fuelled delirium, we witness a frail man reliving his fragmented past.”
What is in the water in Yorkshire? Over the last few years, Yorkshire theatre makers Wright & Grainger and Philip and Jack Stokes have brought some of the finest theatrical experiences to the Fringe!
Quite simply, Dust is a brilliant collaboration between local dramatist Charlaina Thompson and actor Craig McArdle, she with deep family connections to Yorkshire, he a Yorkshire expat!
Effectively, Dust brings the remarkable synchronicity between Thompson and McArdle’s family histories together, particularly where coal mining is involved.
As it happened, Thompson’s great-grandfather was a miner who was awarded the Edward Medal - later converted to the George Cross - for heroically saving a life during a mining disaster. McArdle’s grandfather narrowly avoided the tragic Lofthouse Colliery disaster in 1973 where seven of his mates died. There are compelling truths underpinning this story.
Dust” is also an ‘everyman’ story – that is, the story of every working-class man and woman of a particular era. And the work somehow captures and conveys the subsequent intergenerational trauma. Yes, folks, intergenerational trauma is not confined to a few demographic segments! We all have our crosses to bear! Perhaps, in being a story about a man, Dust doesn’t hit all the boxes seemingly required of theatre at present; it does hit every theatrical mark I can think of with a resounding “bang!”, that bang being the echo of lives impacted by the hard labour required by, and dangers inherent to, Industrialism.
Thompson’s exquisitely sympathetic and evocative crafting of this monologue propels this tale of a life lived in the brutal environment of the coal-pit, very eloquently.
McArdle takes Thompson’s nuanced text and builds the rhythm of his expansive, yet immaculately measured performance to perfection.
McArdles’ investment in this theatrical masterpiece is deep and rich; from the moment he enters as Man, he commands every centimetre of the performance space and auditorium. The intimacy of the repurposed Mill space affords great scope for this consummate performer to directly engage with his audience; the room is absorbed into this extraordinary narrative, a masterpiece in storytelling.
The convention of rapid transitions between the ailing man suffering the ghastly condition “black lung” in his later years, and his early life as a young, Yorkshire scallywag, National Service, wooing, marriage and fatherhood to a brood of five, are as slick as a coal seam is black!
McArdle’s characterization perfectly captures the rough and ready parenting style of a bygone era. This was a style, as a working-class kid of Scottish and English extraction, I was very familiar with!
Similarly, portrayals of pub characters, miners, politicians and journalists are delivered with such disarming honesty as to compel us to identify with them. Across these characters, the implicit code of honour and behaviour, expressed in a glance, a stance and a gesture, was superbly portrayed; the Northern Ten Commandments of this code were cleverly littered throughout the performance to punctuate points in the man’s life. And the denouement is heart wrenching!
Quite simply, this is superb theatre! Again, what is in the water in Yorkshire?!?
Dust. Go! See it!
John Doherty
When: 5 to 23 Mar
Where: The Mill, Angas
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
