The Pitmen Painters

Producer Slovensko ljudsko gledališče Celje
Opening 13. 5. 2011
Running time 2 hours. One interval.

First Slovene production

Translator Tina Mahkota
Director and set designer Samo M. Strelec
Dramaturge Tatjana Doma
Costume designers Leo Kulaš, Svetlana Vizintin
Language consultant Jože Volk
Video feature by Jaka Polutnik

Cast
George Brown Renato Jenček
Oliver Kilbourn Tarek Rashid
Jimmy Floyd David Čeh
Young Lad Blaž Setnikar
Harry Wilson Bojan Umek
Robert Lyon Branko Završan
Susan Parks Nina Rakovec
Helen Sutherland Lučka Počkaj
Ben Nicholson Rastko Krošl
Butler, Chauffeur Igor Sancin
 

The Pitmen Painters is a play based on fact, and inspired by the book about the Ashington Group of painters by the art critic William Feaver. The action of The Pitmen Painters takes place between the years 1934 and 1947 when the Ashington Group achieved its breakthrough and enjoyed its biggest success. In 1934 a group of miners in Ashington decided to embark on an adult education class in Economics. Since they failed to find a tutor at short notice, they hired an art historian, Robert Lyon. Astounded by his approach, the miners realized that they wouldn’t be learning about art quite the way they had imagined. They started enquiring about art and debating its essence and purpose. And in no time they took up painting, too. Some of them became artists in their own right, although they still worked in the pits.
The Pitmen Painters is an eloquent drama full of intelligent, witty and truly virtuoso dialogue about art and life, about friendship, companionship and love, about our relation to art, and, ultimately, about common uneducated miners discovering art and creating extraordinary things.