Pit of all right

A SECOND major Geordie success in the West End, to follow that of musical Billy Elliot, is now a distinct possibility following the successful opening night of The Pitman Painters, the comedy drama based on the true story of miners who became renowned artists, at the National Theatre last week.

There is already talk of extending the sell-out run at the Southbank venue's Cottesloe Theatre to the West End with the two things in common to both projects being the genius of Newcastle playwright Lee Hall, who turned Billy Elliot from a film into a musical, and Tyneside's Live Theatre. Artistic Director Max Roberts supported Hall with a read-through of Billy Elliot at Live before it became an international hit and took his first dramatic success, Cooking With Elvis, down to London as his reputation for creating audience-pleasing scripts took off.

"At the end of it, to use an old theatre expression, we could have died on our arse if people didn't like it The Pitman Painters, but Lee has an enormous currency. I think he's possibly, and I'm biased, one of the most assessable and accomplished writers. I think he could well be in the same bracket as Alan Bennett in due time. A really important author who can speak to a broad audience and it's fantastic that he sustains his relationship with me and Live and that's very important to him," says Roberts.

The project actually started out as a regionally-based idea aimed at putting the revamped Live on the map, last year, after it went dark for a year. The road to London became a lot easier because people like National Theatre director Nicholas Hytnerr were keeping an eye on Hall's output following the success of Billy Elliot.

"I couldnft have been luckier to have asked someone to write a play not only for Live and its new building, but a play that reflects Live Theatre's history and traditions and also questions the notion of art.

Because art in Newcastle, particularly, is very current with a positive art programme which gets into people's lives the way it didn't ten years ago." On the London headlines created by last week's opening night of The Pitman Painters, he says: "Even the wicked Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard gave it a five-star rave so we're in pretty good shape.

We'd made considerable changes from the first production to the second one we opened at Live and took that straight down to London with only a few tweaks between Live and the National, although we did have to re-stage it because the Cottesloe is end on rather than corner on at Live." Roberts took charge of a tight schedule of 15 days up to Press night at the National which saw the Pitman Painters re-rehearse and move south after sell-out runs at Live. There were no fears of a language barrier because Hall's play, based on the book by Bill Feaver, opens with art lecturer Robert Lyon (Ian Kelly) having to come to terms with the Geordie accent himself.

"That's nicely written because he acts as a conduit until the audience tunes in, but National audiences listen to Scottish plays and Irish plays theyfve just never listened to a Geordie play because this is the first time a new play from Newcastle has ever been presented on the National stage," he says.

Roberts calls it an exciting challenge more than daunting for him and actors like Michael Hodgson, Chris Connel, Deka Walmsley and Phillippa Wilson, some of whom had been jobbing actors in London before returning to the North-East in search of success.

gThere is talk of a West End run and there's a producer called Sonia Friedman (one of theatre's most influential people) who is interested and this is something for Lee and me to have a think about when we have time to assess all the offers that emerge.

"It's great to have Live Theatre from Newcastle mentioned in that context. Funnily enough that helps with us raising adequate resources to create our work in the region if you do have that additional profile outside thearea. Despite the wonderful refurbishment and the big hit play, in common with theatres all over the country we face difficult funding issues in the future. You don't get many Lee Halls, he's a one-off, but we are lucky to have a number of talented writers and young writers coming through," he says.

Roberts already has another play with Hall in mind, a kind of sequel to Billy Elliot and The Pitman Painters, as he puts it. "He's written about dance and then about art, so the next one should be on the subject of music which would complete a fitting Geordie trilogy about the arts." * Me And Cilla by new playwright Lee Mattinson runs at Live, Newcastle, from June 12-July 5. Box Office: 0191-232-1232