“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

These are the words of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, a Northeastern Pennsylvania labor worker advocate and human rights activist at the turn of the 20th century. A one-woman musical about Jones, who was once called “The most dangerous woman in America,” was written by Si Kahn and stars Vivian Nesbitt with acoustic guitar accompaniment by her husband, John Dillon.

Two performances of “Mother Jones in Heaven” are scheduled at the Tamaqua community Arts Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. and a matinee show at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

“The story of Mother Jones is both historically and educationally very emotional,” said Nesbitt. “Women who worked hard for human rights back then were either unnoticed or forgotten, and this play brings to her the attention she deserves.”

During the performance, Nesbitt acts and sings with the multifaceted and often troubling persona of Mother Jones, who was described as courageous and outrageous, a blue-collar loyalist and yet an upper-class socialist. She led the broom and bucket brigade through the streets of Tamaqua to protest the corporate treatment of Northeast Pennsylvanian coal miners in demand for higher wages and safer working conditions.

“She brought a revelation of the truth in a moment and sent the emotional landscape about human rights into another direction,” said Nesbitt, who is the program coordinator at the Caffe’ Lena School of Music in Sarasota Springs, New York, near where she and her husband live.

To play the character of Mother Jones is very satisfying, yet also exhausting for Nesbitt.

“Sometimes, when I think how I do her role, I feel like I need a nap,” she kidded.

Dillon, a custom guitar maker for the past 25 years who sings the harmony of the songs written by Kahn, said the musical’s relevance to what’s happening in the world today cannot be understated.

“Mother Jones had a great deal of tragedy in her life. Her husband and four children died from the yellow fever in one week’s time,” said Dillon, alluding to the current pandemic. “She was motivated by this tragedy to attain a public voice, to take up not only a crusade for coal miners’ rights, but also to call for change with the child labor laws in 1900.”

Jones was a prominent figure in union strikes against the coal companies in Hazleton, Mahanoy City and McAdoo, the latter from which she led a march to Coaldale to aid a six-week strike by the United Mine Workers of America. “This was during a time when women had to go through the politics of men to try and get their voices heard,” Dillon said.

“She was a woman in public protest, but not a fan of the suffragette movement for women’s rights,” Nesbitt said. “She felt it would be a distraction from advocating for the human rights that she felt were more important.”

Jones had a fascinating relationship with famous union leader John Mitchell. While she was marching pot-banging miners’ wives through the streets of McAdoo, Tamaqua and Coaldale in the face of police and company threats, Mitchell was staying in a posh Hazleton Hotel. According to reports, he was furious when he heard the news, but remained behind the scenes perhaps so as to not get involved in a crusade that he thought would fail.

Micah Gursky, executive director of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, said, “This show is a fun way to learn about how our mining ancestors in Tamaqua, the Panther Valley, and around the country got organized to fight for better working conditions and wages. Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones led the march that passed right by the Tamaqua arts center in 1900, convincing 5,000 men to join the United Mine Workers. It’s so good to have this hell-raiser back in town!”

“Mother Jones in Heaven” has been performed to rave reviews all across the country since 2016. “Vivian Nesbitt truly becomes Mother Jones … great entertainment, great theater, great history,” said Labor Relations teacher John P. Beck of Michigan State University.

“Like a good song, the play goes beyond facts and timelines to take us inside the human heart,” wrote Sarah Craig in Folk Music Venue.

Nesbitt’s list of acting credits includes, “Breaking Bad,” “The Night Shift,” “Longmire,” and several off-Broadway productions. In 2003, Dillon and his wife had hosted the radio program, “Art of the Song,” in which they interviewed popular artists that included Roger Daltry from the Who and the iconic Smokey Robinson.

They intend to take their play back on the road after this weekend’s performances in Tamaqua. Regarding her audiences, Nesbitt believes that “Mother Jones in Heaven” brings out the “triumph in themselves.’

“It’s a ‘we can do this’ inspiration from real Mother Jones,” said Nesbitt. “She was as humanly flawed as we all are, but was still driven to live a life of service that went far beyond herself.”

Nesbitt goes “far beyond herself” when she performs the role and as her husband would attest, “she changes her emotions each time. She feels something else that she can add to be more authentic to the character.”

Their performances have ended with standing ovations as they pass the torch of human rights advocacy on to their audiences. Nesbitt said she was stopped in the parking lot by a woman who had just seen the play.

“She had been writing letters as a human rights advocate and after seeing the play, she said she was going to start a door-to-door campaign.”

Door to door and heart to heart, “Mother Jones in Heaven” brings her living history to Tamaqua this weekend, where it had begun over 120 years ago.

Tickets for Saturday’s and Sunday’s performances can be purchased on the Tamaqua Community Arts Center website.