By Meg Holden
A journalist and editor with a keen eye for detail, Meg served as AV’s Communications Intern for summer 2011.

Adelind Horan performs Cry of the Mountain

Not to be overly dramatic, but one person portraying 13 characters in one performance sounds like a theatrical disaster waiting to happen. I’ve known actors to have mini-meltdowns over filling one role , so filling 13 just seems crazy.

But maybe Adelind Horan is crazy — crazy committed.

Cry of the Mountain, Horan’s masterful play about mountaintop removal coal mining, will run at Live Arts in Charlottesville, Va. from June 23 to 26. Join Appalachian Voices at the June 26 performance, followed by a discussion about coal mining, and a portion of your ticket sale will support Appalachian Voices’ efforts to stop mountaintop removal.

During the performance, Horan portrays 13 real people, speaking in their own words — taken verbatim from personal interviews — about how they have been affected by mountaintop removal coal mining. The video preview does not do Horan’s performance justice. Her versatility and attention to detail — every accent, pause, or stutter is perfectly reenacted in the play — gives Cry of the Mountain the strength and power that only a true story can have.

Called “must-see theater” and “enlightening, seamless, and wonderfully unique,” Horan’s crazy commitment to showing the true impacts of coal means that she portrays miners, scientists, mining executives, and everyone in between. As playwright David Mamet said, “That which comes from the heart goes to the heart,” and Cry of the Mountain certainly does.

Watch the video preview.

Buy tickets here.