On a sunny spring Monday in 2010, at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch coal mine, an explosion buried 29 men under hundreds of feet of rock and rubble. The disaster shook the world, and laid down a community in grief. Through first-person remembrances from family members, friends, and the few survivors, Coal Country paints a portrait of the miners, the town that raised them, and the industry that failed them. As in their previous acclaimed play, The Exonerated, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s reporting brings reality to the stage. The country musician Steve Earle amplifies the Appalachian atmosphere with original songs. —C.J.F.