Classic coalhouse play relaunched at Richmond Theatre

Classic coalhouse play relaunched at Richmond Theatre

7:20am Sunday 6th May 2012 in News By Christine Fleming

Close the coalhouse door by Alan Plater.
Photo credit: - Keith Pattison

A play charting all the major strikes, victories and disappointments in British mining history will launch its national tour at Richmond Theatre.
Close the Coalhouse Door is based on the stories of Sid Chaplin, a miner turned writer, with joyful and heart-tugging music inspired by folk songs from the north-east of England.
The play, by Alan Plater, was first performed in Newcastle in 1968 but has been revived as a memorial production following his death in 2010.
Director Samuel West says the work is moving in places but some of the original folk songs are “cheeky and very funny” and he promises theatregoers a good night out.
He says: “Coalhouse is set at a golden wedding - so of course it’s a party to honour 50 years of love and family life. “But it's also a celebration of a community - of the north-east miners, the stories and the songs that inspired them and commemorated their lives and losses, their victories and their struggle. “And it celebrates an important principle - that as people we must make and produce things, not just sell things.”

Plater is considered one of the greatest writers of the golden age of British television drama. As well as 18 episodes of Z-Cars, he wrote Fortunes of War, the Beiderbecke Affair, the Last of the Blonde Bombshells and A Very British Coup.
Erica Whyman, chief executive and artistic director of Northern Stage, says: “Coalhouse is a warm-hearted, timely and powerfully moving piece of theatre which speaks to many of our fears and furies about the times we’re living through now.”
Close the Coalhouse Door, Richmond Theatre. Wednesday, May 9, until Saturday, May 12. Call 0844 8717651.

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