Pitmen Painters, The
Duchess Theatre
Book until: Jan 21, 2012
Monday - Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday & Saturday at 2.30pm
***** - Evening Standard, Daily Express, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express
Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best New Play
Following celebrated seasons at the National Theatre and on Broadway, Lee Hall's THE PITMEN PAINTERS will at last enjoy a West End season, opening at the Duchess Theatre on Wednesday 5 October.
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.
THE PITMEN PAINTERS is highly amusing, deeply moving and always entertaining as it examines the lives of a group of ordinary men who do extraordinary things.