The Pitmen Painters

Synopsis

Written by Lee Hall, creator of the hit film and musical Billy Elliot, The Pitmen Painters has received huge critical acclaim and won the Evening Standard award for Best New Play.

Originally produced by Newcastle’s acclaimed Live Theatre, and following sell-out seasons at the National Theatre and on Broadway, The Pitmen Painters now opens in the West End.

In 1934, a group of Ashington miners hired a professor to teach an art appreciation evening class. Rapidly abandoning theory in favour of practice, the pitmen began to paint – prolifically. Within a few years avant-garde artists became their friends and their work was acquired by prestigious collectors; but every day they continued to work, as before, down the mine…

Full of humour, drama and revelation, The Pitmen Painters has never been so relevant, as public cutbacks take their toll and the debate about the importance of the arts reaches a crescendo.

Lee Hall wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliot and adapted it for the West End in 2005, winning an Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Billy Elliot opened on Broadway in November 2008. His plays include Spoonface Steinberg (Ambassadors), Cooking with Elvis (Whitehall Theatre), and an adaptation of Herman Heijerman’s The Good Hope for the National Theatre.

Inspired by a book by William Feaver, this is the original production directed by Max Roberts, with set and costume design by Gary McCann, lighting by Douglas Kuhrt and sound by Martin Hodgson, featuring many of the actors who starred at the National Theatre and on Broadway.

Whatsonstage.com have some great The Pitmen Painters tickets so book today for this must see show! 
 

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 12 October 2011

The story of the Ashington Group painters as told in Lee Hall’s play, based on William Feaver’s wonderful book, is one of the most interesting in British painting, and this glorious production – a clear companion piece to Hall’s Billy Elliot, a musical fable of art and the working class – is at last deservedly enshrined in the West End.

The Pitmen Painters opened at Live Theatre in Newcastle in 2007, came to the National’s Cottesloe in the following year, stepped up to the Lyttelton in 2009, visited New York and has just completed a nationwide tour.

And yet Max Roberts’ production, with four of the original cast, seems, well, fresh as paint and varnished to perfection. The group of sharply characterised miners is supplemented by a dental “mechanic” and an unemployed lad, a role doubled by the excellent Brian Lonsdale with Ben Nicholson, who treats the new arrivals o...

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Latest User Review

hollie hodges - 29 April 2012:

amazing play had not even heard of it because my class went to see it funny, charming moving all you need in a performance ...

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