National Theatre & Broadway hit The Pitmen Painters

The art of the matter

A group of miners create something extraordinary in The Pitmen Painters, coming to the Theatre Royal Brighton

Following sell-out seasons at the National Theatre, on Broadway and in the West End, Bill Kenwright presents the award winning play The Pitmen Painters, which visits Theatre Royal Brighton for a week long run from Monday 24–Saturday 29 June as part of a new national tour.


Written by Lee Hall, creator of the worldwide sensation Billy Elliot, and inspired by a book by William Feaver, The Pitmen Painters has received huge critical acclaim and won the Evening Standard award for Best New Play.

Set in 1934, the play follows a group of miners in Ashington, Northumberland, who hire a professor to teach a Workers Educational Association art appreciation evening class. None of the men has ever painted or set foot in a gallery before. Rapidly abandoning art theory in favour of practice, the pitmen began to paint. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists became their friends and their work was acquired by prestigious collections; but every day they continued to work, as before, down the mine. Examining the lives of a group of ordinary men who achieve extraordinary things, The Pitmen Painters is a humorous, deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics.

Lee Hall wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliot and adapted it for the West End in 2005, winning an Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The play is beautifully directed by Max Roberts.

Don’t miss this entertaining and thought-provoking piece of drama during its short Brighton run.

The Pitmen Painters, by Lee Hall, Theatre Royal Brighton, Monday 24–Saturday 29 June, 7.45pm,
Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm
0844 871 7650*
www.atgtickets.com/brighton*
*Subject to a booking fee