Haymarket Eight

No matter the era, worker rights issues never fade away. Current arguments over setting a mandatory, $15/hour minimum wage and requiring employers to offer maternity leave aren’t too unlike the demands of the late-1800s working class, who demanded an eight-hour cap to the workday in place of the 60-hour, six-day weeks most industrial workers of the times faced. The true-story topic of Stage Left’s opening season production, the Haymarket riot, takes audiences back to 1886 Chicago for the story of eight labor rights leaders who were wrongfully convicted of throwing a deadly bomb during a peaceful labor protest. As the play’s acts unfold, a young journalist risks it all in an attempt to clear the men’s names before it’s too late.

Oct. 16-Nov. 1; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm • $10 • Stage Left Theater • 108 W. Third • spokanestageleft.org • 838-9727