New play honours the memory of victims of Lofthouse mining disaster
In March 1973 at the Lofthouse Colliery near Wakefield, seven miners lost their lives when they accidentally breached a flooded abandoned 19th century mineshaft. The subsequent six-day rescue operation tragically only succeeded in recovering one body.
A new play by Charlaina Thompson, who grew up in Doncaster and now lives in Adelaide, south Australia, honours the memory of the victims and survivors of one of the worst mining disasters in the North of England. The play, entitled Dust, won an award at the 2025 Adelaide Fringe festival and has proved hugely popular with audiences and reviewers alike. Following sell-out performances in Australia, Thompson is now taking the production, which she also directs, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it opens later this week.
Thompson has been living in Australia since 2001, working as a drama teacher for several years, and was inspired to write the play after returning to Yorkshire in 2023 for the funeral of a much-loved aunt. It prompted her to begin to look into her family history. “I was very close to my aunt and I felt there were so many questions that I didn’t get to ask her. I started to do some research and discovered some fascinating things I didn’t know, for example, that my grandfather had been awarded a medal for bravery for his part in the rescue of miners at Askern pit. I also found out that my great grandfather had worked to improve working conditions for miners, and other members of my family were involved in the mining industry and faced many challenges. It all became part of a journey of understanding myself. Writing this play has brought me back home and helped me to understand where my own grit and resilience come from.”
Having lost her mother to cancer, Thompson was taken into foster care at the age of 13 and for a while when she was 18, she was homeless. “Barnardo’s got me somewhere to live and back into education and then after working for a while I saved enough money to go to Australia where I studied English and Drama at university and became a high school teacher.” She won awards for her teaching and wrote plays for her students which she directed. “That taught me my craft and was good preparation for writing Dust.”
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The play, the first of a planned trilogy, explores the life of one man, who survived the tragedy at Lofthouse, over the course of several decades. The narrative moves back and forth in time as, from his hospital bed, the now elderly man holds onto fragmented memories of his past as a boxer, boilermaker, soldier and miner. “I would describe the play as a love letter,” says Thompson. “It is a love letter from me to the community I grew up in but it is also about the power of love – the main character falls in love and despite all the hardship he faces, he pulls through because of the love he has for his wife, his family and his colleagues.”
The solo show is performed by Craig McArdle, an actor, director and drama teacher originally from Wakefield and also now based in Australia. It is a personal story for him too – his own grandfather was a survivor of the Lofthouse disaster. “Craig gives an incredibly powerful performance,” says Thompson. “And it is quite emotional for him because of the close family connection.” McArdle and Thompson have been friends since 2014, and reconnected at a Fringe Festival in Adelaide in 2024 shortly after she had the initial idea for Dust. “When he told me about his grandfather, it just felt like we had to do it,” says Thompson. “I wrote the first draft of the play in four weeks, then we developed it for around eight months. We loved the play but didn’t know if anyone else would. We just didn’t anticipate the kind of response we have had – the play has touched people in ways that we couldn’t imagine.”
Thompson speaks to me the day before she is due to visit the Lofthouse Colliery Memorial site, where she had been invited by Tony Banks, a former miner and mining historian who works to preserve Yorkshire’s mining heritage. “I am really excited about tomorrow,” she says. “Tony is an incredible person who works tirelessly to ensure these stories aren’t lost.” The hope is that the play will eventually tour to Yorkshire venues. “I would love to bring this story home,” says Thompson. “It would be so wonderful to bring it back to the people that it was written for.”
Dust is at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe, August 5-30. Tickets pleasance.co.uk