Chris Learmonth, Daniel Ryan, Paul Baker, Dan Armour and Martin Phillips in BLT’s July production of The Pitmen Painters, directed by Pauline Armour (Photo: Phil Cairns: http://philcairns.zenfolio.com)
Fri 10 – Sat 18 July 2015 (not Sun 12)
The Pitmen Painters
by Lee Hall
Directed by Pauline Armour
Hever Castle 2015
Following our 2014 near sell-out production of Anne Boleyn at the Hever Castle Festival Theatre, we are delighted to return there this year with The Pitmen Painters on Thursday August 13, Friday August 14 (matinee and evening) and Saturday August 15.
Checkout the Hever Castle Festival Theatre website for booking information.
The Pitmen Painters was written by the Tony award-winning playwright Lee Hall, creator of the worldwide sensation, Billy Elliot and current West End smash hit, Shakespeare In Love.
Based upon real events, The Pitmen Painters is the inspirational and moving story of a group of Northumberland coal miners who, in 1934, hire a professor to teach them art appreciation. The ‘posh’ academic arrives and, despite hardly being able to understand the miners’ strong Geordie accent, soon encourages them to make art for themselves by drawing on life from their own community. The joshing banter of the miners provides a hilarious backdrop to the harshness of their working lives, whilst their journey of discovery into the art world proves deeply affecting and passionately life-affirming.
Since its first performance in Newcastle in 2007, The Pitmen Painters has sold out the National Theatre, the West End and Broadway and has toured nationally and internationally. It won the Evening Standard Award for best new play of 2008 and has been hailed as one of the past decade’s most significant pieces of British theatre. The Pitmen Painters is a funny, profoundly moving and highly entertaining salute to ordinary men who do extraordinary things.
From the depths of the mine shaft to the heights of fame, prepare to laugh and cry – but most of all to have a fantastic theatrical experience!
CAST:
George : Dan Armour
Harry : Martin Phillips
Oliver : Paul Baker
Jimmy : Chris Learmonth
Young Lad : Daniel Ryan
Lyon : Andy Solts
Susan Parkes : Helen Scott
Helen Sutherland : Alison Green
Ben Nicholson : Stevie Hughes
“Breathtaking” – The Guardian
“A beautiful work of art that everyone should see” – The Times
“A wonderful piece of theatre: comic, sad and stirring in the same breath” – Financial Times
Poster features Another Day by Alastair Brooks. Reproduced by kind permission of the artist.