Babel, Caledonian Park, London / Close the Coalhouse Door, touring review
The late Alan Plater’s Close the Coalhouse Door (1968) a good-hearted celebration of bolshie Geordie miners through the years is now touring in a co-production between Newcastle’s Live Theatre and Northern Stage.
It’s full of folksy songs by Alex Glasgow and stories of industrial strife and pit disasters, with the dramatic focus provided by a family of miners.
The piece has been fleetingly brought up to date by Lee Hall, as the mines give way to safer, less back-breaking work in call-centres, but it’s a shame the show offers almost nothing about Margaret Thatcher’s epic confrontation with the pitmen.
Samuel West directs a lively, well-acted production, but the show is often sentimental in its left-wing politics, and badly dated.
Coalhouse Tour info (0191 230 5151)
Full article - Telegraph - Theatre Review
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