Close The Coalhouse Door opens in Newcastle tonight.
Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR catches up with two of its actorsA REVIVAL of one of the most famous plays ever written about the North East opens in its home city of Newcastle tonight. Close The Coalhouse Door will run at Northern Stage until May 5.
Alan Plater wrote the play, first performed in Newcastle in 1968, which chronicles the strikes, victories and disappointments in British mining from 1831 when the first unions were established.
It has been updated by Lee Hall to take into account the 80s miners’ strike, with direction from acclaimed actor Samuel West.
For local lad Chris Connel, playing a miner has become something of a habit - he was one of the original cast of Pitmen Painters, which he also performed on Broadway.
In Coalhouse he plays Jackie, as well as various historical figures.
“The line can get blurred,” he laughs during a break from rehearsals. “I did Pitmen for four years, playing a repressed, downtrodden miner. It was great fun but four years in you start to feel a bit repressed and downtrodden outside of work as well. I think if you are an actor in the North East I think it is inevitable at some point you will play a miner. That’s just the law – you had to be in Byker Grove and be a miner. It’s really good fun this one, it’s nice to be playing a miner who plays the guitar, sings songs and generally has a good time.
“When I heard it was going to be on I was pretty determined that I was going to get seen for it. I think I would have taken it quite badly if I didn’t get a part in it. Normally I’m not like that but I really had it fixed in my mind that I really wanted to be in this.
“It is a legendary Tyneside play and the fact I knew Alan Plater quite well too.”
Co-star Adam Barlow is making his Newcastle debut in Coalhouse, taking on the role of the vicar.
“Not being a Geordie I had not really heard that much about it and the scale this play had on history and what it meant to the Geordie people.
“It’s now that I’ve really started to see what it means to people because for the first version in 1968 they were queuing up for tickets and 200 people a day were getting rejected, with strong Geordie miners not going to the match on Saturday at St James’ Park to see the matinee instead. People will come to see it and feel motivated and revolutionised.”
Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/entertainment-in-newcastle/theatre/2012/04/13/what-s-on-close-the-coalhouse-door-northern-stage-72703-30748181/#ixzz1s0A5WTx2
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