The Pitmen Painters is based on a book by William Feaver about a group of miners in the northern part of England who happen to become renowned artists. The book is based on true events, making the story line even more moving. These miners from Ashington are part of a little association that brings them education after a hard day underground. They hired a man named Robert Lyon to teach them about art, and later, through many classes and exercises, became well known for their artistic capabilities.
Though the story has a very serious message about the education of the working class, it is filled with much humor to lighten the feel of the play. One of my favorite scenes is the first 
scene when the five men taking the class are sitting in their “hut” when “Professor Lyons” comes to teach them about what art means. It was very humorous because at first, when Mr. Lyon (Ian Kelly), tells them that he is not a professor, they think they have been in some ways cheated of a proper art education. At the same time, as Mr. Lyon shows them slides of beautiful art from the Renaissance, none of the mining men quite understand its meaning. They have a hard time understanding that art doesn’t have one single meaning, but that art has a different meaning to everyone looking at it. Also, the dialect and accent of the miners definitely clashes with Mr. Lyon’s upper class New Castle accent. It is humorous seeing the two groups confused by each other’s words.
Instead of teaching the men about well known pieces of art, Mr. Lyon instead gets them behind the easel painting their own interpretations of things such as work, and a deluge. The real paintings that the original miners from the war period of Ashington painted were projected on a screen above the actors’ heads as they talked about their artwork. It was amazing to see how talented many of them were after not even having seen a piece of artwork their entire lives.
Towards the middle of the play, there was an introduction to a new character named 
Helen Sutherland (Phillippa Wilson). Along with the characters of Robert Lyon and Oliver Kilbourn (one of the pitmen), she was a real woman in those times. She was an art collector. In the show, however, she played more of a role than she did in real life. She offered Oliver (Christopher Connel) a stipend, or pay, for being an artist which he turns down. I personally didn’t like Helen’s character and loved it when Oliver told her off. He said that he was a miner, not a posh painter who had been fed art since he was a little boy. She couldn’t make him something he wasn’t.
My favorite character of the play was definitely Jimmy Floyd (David Whitaker). He always seemed to be totally out of it and in his own world. When Mr. Lyon would give the group an assignment, he never followed the instructions. On their first piece, representing work, Jimmy said he threw his away because it wasn’t any good. On the second assignment, the deluge, instead of creating a biblical storm, he draws a giant dog with a town scene behind it. Also, he ran out of yellow paint to color in the shed, so he painted it green like the grass. In another picture he painted, a vase with flowers in it, he wanted to paint in see-through curtains but according to him, “we haven’t learned how to do see-through yet.”
All in all, I thought it was an amazing show, with a great message and great laughs. At the end, there was a discussion with the producer, one of the actors (Deka Walmsley who played George Brown), and some young guy who worked for the Manhattan Theatre Club. Many interesting topics were brought up and discussed and the producer answered them brilliantly.
The Pitmen Painters
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
September 25, 2010
Marina B. Nebro
