Working Class Aesthetics – the Pitmen Painters

The Glasgow Theatre Royal has the privilege of hosting Live Theatre Newcastle and The National Theatre in a production of Pitmen Painters, written by Lee Hall, featuring much of the original 2007 cast. The play centres around The Ashington Group, a society largely composed of miners who, under the Workers Educational Association, turned their eyes to art appreciation after seven years of evening classes in other subjects, and got hooked.

Inherently political, but spiced with eager witticisms which temper and dissolve any air of the soap-box, the play explores the relationship between art and class. Not only the idea that pursuit of art is the preserve of the rich, but also that one need to speak a “certain language” in order to enter into a dialogue on culture. The characters are vivid, each providing an opportunity to approach the aesthetic questions raised by the plot from their own points of view which develop into maturity as they, themselves progress.

The integration of the great questions of the philosophy of art is a great success. The Pitmen Painters are used to non-arbitrary answers, hard facts, and are rather disappointed at first when their tutor informs them that those are few when it comes to art. Struggling with the tensions between the abstract and concrete, the significance of feelings, and meaning as internal to the observer, they are entreated to being painting that they may understand from the inside. In doing for themselves they find great fulfilment, understanding, transcendence of their class – in being their own bosses, and a deep appreciation of what makes art and the meaning of being an artist.

The play takes an unexpected yet welcome turn from the critical to the sentimental in the second act. The spirit of the play is allowed to evolve. Having dealt with the outer dilemmas of philosophical inquiry, our attention turns to dilemmas most inner, self-identity and affiliation.

                Raucous sound effects mark scene changes rather intrusively, abd sadly things take a turn for the worse just before the end. The tangible drama of the penultimate scene is cut short and trivialised by a burst of loud music which plays over the stage dress into a final scene which heartbreakingly fails to coalesce into a satisfactory resolution. Jimmy Floyd’s politicised speach on the Pitman Painters creating and appreciating art in tribute to all the other working class people who cannot, falls short of delivering a warming conclusion that we may carry with us out of the auditorium. We feel suddenly harkened back to the spirit of the first act through trodden ground to an anti-climax.

Nonetheless, the production of a play so deeply involved in philosophy which remains so consistently insightful and entertaining at the same time, is no mean feat. The Pitmen Painters is a jewel of theatre: inspiring to the art-lover, animating to the philosopher, enlivening to the humanist, and beyond that charming to witness.



See another good review of Pitman Painters by Rachel Cooke of the Guaridan here