Mining Stories

On 5 November 2015, a tailings dam for toxic mine waste in the mountains of the Brazilian mining province Minas Gerais burst. A destructive mud flow wiped several villages off the map before plunging into the six-hundred-kilometre river Rio Doce. In a region in which three quarters of the population works in the mining industry, the disaster felt like complete obliteration.

Until she was seven, theatre director Silke Huysmans lived in Minas Gerais herself, only a few kilometres from the epicentre of the disaster. After the disaster, she returned for the first time, along with Hannes Dereere, to interview residents and witness the consequences in person. When they returned home, they widened their perspective on the event with additional reflections from people such as economist Paul De Grauwe and neurologist Luc Crevits.

They each tell the story of the disaster from their own context, with the own nuances and interests. Mining Stories is not a whodunit, not a reconstruction of the disaster, but an intriguing journey through a web of personal stories and social issues that is untangled before your very eyes. Fascinating and shocking docu-theatre.

• Theatre directors Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere are fascinated by the impact of landscapes and environments on everyday life. Their work is rarely based on descriptions of people themselves, but on systems, buildings, and stories that people leave behind. In an almost scientific way, they explore the themes of their future productions. From 2017 until 2018, Silke and Hannes are focus artists at the new arts centre KAAP.

“Alles klopt aan Mining Stories, met een grote dramaturgische, filosofische en bijna wetenschappelijke precisie.” — Theaterkrant