'The Pitmen Painters' at The National Theatre

As a special treat Chris took me to see 'The Pitmen Painters' at the National Theatre tonight. It's a new play by Lee Hall about the Ashington Group of painters from Ashington Colliery in Northumberland between 1934-1947. The play was first performed in Newcastle in 2007 and this is a co-production with Live Theatre who originally produced it. I found it strangely powerful.

It's the tale of a group of miners who commission an art appreciation course through the local branch of the Workers Education Association and begin painting as a way of understanding the basics of art. Through this they become celebrities of the art world in the '30s and '40s with exhibitions in London, Newcastle and Edinburgh (and later around the word) while still working as miners. It's quite a simple tale in that sense, but with serious undercurrents.

I found it particularly powerful since I recognised so much of the play. I grew up in a former pit village in the North East - although the pits were long closed when I came on the scene, the history was there, the pride was there and the people were there. The importance of learning, the importance of bettering yourself and passing that on to the next generation, the long memories and the spirit. Right from the start, that's something that took me into the heart of the play - the miners knew nothing about art and had no access to books about art but they recognised that there was something about art that they should understand if they were to progress and learn. Risking their lives in the mines during the day, they wanted art in the evening, even if only for one night a week. And they started painting on hardboard with left-over emulsion paint.

The play ably portrayed this spirit and yearning, particularly through the character of Oliver Kilbourn, excellently played by Christopher Connel. Oliver entered the mines at the age of 10 and when offered a way out refused because he couldn't possibly be an artist despite wanting to be one, he just couldn't see that life for himself. There was a moving scene early on where you can feel his frustrations at not having the vocabulary to express himself properly despite seeing and feeling the art in his soul, and Christopher Connel took us into that abyss of loss and ambitions that Oliver couldn't even understand.

The play started with miners who painted and closed with miners who were artists and spoke as artists. They were still miners but were no longer unable or afraid to express themselves and have views on art and life. The nationalisation of the pits and the birth of the health service are celebrated in the last scene, along with a rendition of the miners' hymn with brass band accompaniment and a pit banner on stage, something I remember from the '70s on the news for the annual Durham Miners Gala with marches and ornate banners and a grand festival. I never attended a Gala and will never have the chance again since the pit closures of the '80s.

To most people in the audience tonight it was probably distant history, something that happened far away and a long time ago. But not to me. My uncle, my godfather, started working in the pits in the late '40s and for all I know could have worked alongside some of the Ashington painters. He went on to a management programme and left the mines for the safety of the colliery offices and management, but he served his time. I'll have to ask him if he ever worked at Ashington. The coal-fields of the North East, Yorkshire and South Wales powered the industrial revolution and Empire and that's no small thing.

The miners all spoke with a Geordie accent (or the Northumbrian version) and it was quite fun at the half time hearing people say they couldn't understand it all - poor southerners! The down side is that I sometimes felt people were laughing at the accent and the misunderstandings when the posh people were on stage rather than the words (but that might be me being over-sensitive). I'm probably portraying it as being too serious but there are lots of laughs in the play as well. There's something there for everyone.

To complement the play there's a small exhibition of paintings outside, maybe 50 or so, so it's well worth getting there early to view the paintings and a few small sculptures. Go and see it, it's good stuff.