Since this play was first produced and performed at Newcastle’s Live Theatre in September 2007, it has gone on to have seasons at both the National Theatre in London and on Broadway, and is now part way through a second nationwide tour of the UK. On the previous tour in 2009 West Yorkshire was omitted with the nearest performances being in either Sheffield or Newcastle but this has been remedied and it is playing this week at The Grand in Leeds.

Written by Lee Hall, who created hit musical Billy Elliot, and directed by Max Roberts, the play tells the story of a group of Ashington miners who sign up for an art appreciation class. Their tutor Robert Lyon, having made little headway showing them slides of Renaissance masterpieces, decides he can better teach them about art by encouraging them to create it. First he gets them to produce linotypes then proper paintings.

From early on it is clear that many of these men, who have been working down the pits since they were children and whose formal education was extremely limited, have real talent. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists including Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth become their friends and their work is acquired by prestigious collections; but every day they work, as before, down the mine.

As befitting any work by Lee Hall, the writing is excellent, full of humour but also poignant at times as well. The story takes us from the miners’ early days of their art classes in the mid 1930s right through to the end of the Second World War. The play shows how open these men were to the world of art, how they came to embrace it. I thought that the acting by the group of eight actors was superb. Talents shine through, particularly that of Trevor Fox playing the role of Oliver Kilbourn, who I thought was absolutely excellent. Likewise, Deka Walmsley as George Brown, David Whitaker as Jimmy Floyd, and Michael Hodgson as Harry Wilson were also outstanding. The contrast between these miners (and one dental technician) and their tutor Robert Lyon, excellently portrayed by David Leonard, was particularly brought out in the writing. Lyon, the scholarly type, found it difficult to understand the miners’ Geordie accents and expressions and likewise the miners had difficulty with his upper class pronunciations. This led to some classic humour. There were also very good performances from Brian Lonsdale, Joy Brook and Victoria Kay as Susan Parks who Lyon brings along to one of the classes as a nude model. This is another great production from the Bill Kenwright stable and one that I would highly recommend.