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Winner of the 2024 Carol Bolt Award
Abdul and Solomon introduce newbie Bai to the intricacies and dignity of gravedigging for the town down the hill, until exposure to a deadly illness sweeping through the community means they are prohibited from entering town. The three must make the best of a bad situation as their isolated workload increases and support from the townsfolk diminishes.
Based on the West African Ebola epidemic and echoing the collective experiences of COVID-19, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard’s latest work from her acclaimed 54ology series offers a fascinating and inspired portrait of the unsung heroes who do our dirty work in the shadows. Blending workplace levity with profound reflections on duty, hope, and interdependence, Diggers is a tribute to essential workers everywhere.
“Diggers makes us think twice about the things we take for granted in contemporary society, and perhaps even leads us to question how we can do better.”
—The McGill Daily
“A plot-driven comedy shrouded in tragic circumstance, Diggers examines the lengths to which its characters must go to retain their humanity, even as they deal with societal despair and plumb the depths of grief.”
—The Winnipeg Free Press
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, a.k.a. Belladonna the Blest, is an emcee, playwright, and agitator. Her playwriting is focused in the 54ology, which includes The First Stone, Diggers, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Just Now, Click Click, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Dark Love, and Gas Girls. She is a collaborator with Kern Albert on Panoptikon, with Pandemic Theatre on The Only Good Indian and with Ivan Barbotin on Oubliette. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the anthologies Refractions: Solo and Refractions: Scenes, as well as editor of Indian Act: Residential School Plays. DM is currently the associate artist at lemonTree creations and artistic director of New Harlem Productions.