Reviewed by Judy Richter
Lee Hall, who created the fictional
account of "Billy Elliot," has turned to actual history for "The
Pitmen Painters,"
being given its West Coast premiere by TheatreWorks. Inspired by a book by William
Feaver, this is
the dramatized story of a group of coal miners in Ashington, a town of about
27,000 in Northern England's Northumberland, who took an art class through the
auspices of the Workers Education Association in 1934 and kept at it for 40
years. The paintings they produced were soon exhibited throughout the country
and attracted the attention of art collectors.
Hall
consolidates the group to five men along with their instructor, Robert Lyon (Paul
Whitworth, and
compresses the time into 14 years. Because most of these men had left school to
work in the mines at age of 10 or 11, their initial reaction to Lyon's lectures
was bafflement. They had never seen a painting. They had no idea who Henry
Moore was. However, when Lyon set them to painting, their creativity blossomed.
Mostly they painted familiar scenes: men at work in the mines, people in the
town, the countryside.
Perhaps
the most transformational event occurs near the end of Act 1, when they go to
London and see the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. By the end of the play,
they're far more articulate and knowledgeable even as they continue to work in
the mines.
In
her sharply directed production, Leslie Martinson has some of the Bay Area's finest
actors to work with. James Carpenter plays George Brown, the union leader who's a stickler for
the rules. Jackson Davis plays Jimmy Floyd, while Nicholas Pelczar plays the character called Young
Lad, George's enthusiastic nephew.He also has a short scene as a successful
artist, Ben Nicholson. Dan Hiatt is Harry Wilson, who works as a dental mechanic (dental
technician) rather than the mines because he was gassed during World War I.
He's also a socialist. Patrick Jones plays Oliver Kilbourn, one of the most promising artists.
He faces the play's major conflict -- whether to stay in his job or accept
higher pay as a fulltime artist supported by a wealthy patroness, Helen
Sutherland, played by Marcia Pizzo. The cast is completed by Kathryn Zdan as Susan, a model who shows up
for class one night to pose in the nude -- much to the men's astonishment.
These
fine performances are complemented by Andrea Bechert's set, B. Modern's costumes, Steven B.
Mannshardt's
lighting, Gregory Robinson's sound and Jim Gross's projections (quite helpful).
It's a tribute to these talented actors and artists that this production works
so well. However, they can't totally compensate for the play's weaknesses,
especially in the second act. That's when the men's horizons have become so
much broader and their knowledge so much richer than at the start. The problem,
though, is that this act seems stuck on one note as they endlessly talk about
art and its meaning. Soon one begins to wonder how Hall will wrap this all up,
but he does so on an upbeat note in 1947, when the mines were nationalized.