The Cape Breton Miners’ Museum in Glace Bay will commemorate Davis Day with a two-day memorial event—a concert by The Men of the Deeps and a rare showing of the movie Margaret’s Museum. [READ KEN CHISHOLM’S REVIEW FROM WGO # 8 JANUARY 1996]
The Men of the Deeps will perform at the museum on the evening of June 10, and on June 11, the official Davis Day, the Miners’ Museum will present a free showing of Margaret’s Museum, the award-winning movie based on Sheldon Currie’s classic novel called The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum.
A critically acclaimed love story filmed in Cape Breton and England, Margeret’s Museum tells of the “passionate romance and devastating tragedy that led to the unsettling exhibits in her museum.” With terrific performances by Helena Bonham-Carter, Kate Nelligan, Kenneth Walsh and Clive Russell, film critic Roger Ebert praised Margaret’s Museum as “one of those small, nearly perfect movies that you know, seeing it, is absolutely one of a kind. [READ KEN CHISHOLM’S ACCOUNT OF THE MOVIE PREMIERE FROM WGO # 8, JANUARY 1996]
Sheldon Currie will be at the Miners’ Museum on June 11 to introduce Margaret’s Museum with a talk about the novel’s transformation into a motion picture, and to help celebrate the new printing of his best-selling novel, The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum.
Currie’s novel, The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, has stood the test of time. It has won a variety of accolades, with special recognition by Ontario school teachers as a book that can win over what are known as “reluctant readers.“ With popular sales of over 15,000 copies, it is a deeply moving love story that pulls no punches regarding the impact of coal mining on the lives of both the miners and their families. When asked about Margaret’s powerful response to deaths in the coal mines, Sheldon Currie told CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers, that “if you think that’s bad, just try to imagine the reality.”
Davis Day was established by the United Mine Workers of America with the vow to never again work on June 11, the day William Davis was shot by BESCO company police during the 1925 Strike. June 11 has evolved into a day of remembrance not only of William Davis but of all those miners who have been killed on the job in the coal mines of Nova Scotia. In 2008 it was recognized by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly as William Davis Miners Memorial Day.
Tickets for the June 10 Men of the Deeps concert are $15 for adults and $13 for youths—available by calling 902-849-4522 and online at minersmuseum.com. Concert begins at 8 pm.
There will be no charge to attend the June 11 talk by Sheldon Currie and to see the movie Margaret’s Museum. That evening begins at 7 pm. Everyone is invited.
