NEW YORK—Death statistics should not be simply filed and forgotten. What writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen set out to do with their moving documentary-theater piece “Coal Country” is show that the 29 coal miners who died in the 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia were more than just statistics in a ledger.
Most of the show’s text is taken from interviews conducted in 2016 with those directly affected by the tragedy, while other material comes from trial transcripts. The original music by Steve Earle, who serves as the show’s music director and sole musician, also adds, as he notes, a few words of his own to the story.
