EVERY seat for every performance has sold.

Pitman fans are packed into unfamiliar nooks and crannies as Lee Hall’s latest masterpiece returns to the region after two years of coalfired success. It has conquered audiences at Live Theatre, the National (where it will return) and has Broadway beckoning.

This comedic gem, hewn from the lives of ordinary Ashington miners, grabs hearts and minds because it dangles the prospect of even the humblest corner of society moving within a brushstroke of the artistic elite.

Based on the true events recorded in William Feaver’s book, Hall’s creative genius is to imbue life into five men on a Woodhorn Colliery WEA art appreciation course run by Newcastle master of painting Robert Lyon (a beautiful study of class bewilderment from Ian Kelly).

The rest of the cast are the North-East’s finest enjoying a well-deserved spell in the spotlight. Deka Walmsley is the hilarious “rules is rules” WEA organister, Michael Hodgson blasts out a monumental monologue as the Marxist Harry Wilson, Brian Lonsdale is disturbingly familiar as the desperate-for-work Young Lad, and Lisa McGrillis provokes near apoplexy from the miners as Susan Parks, the student persuaded by Lyon to turn up and undress for a life study class.

Christopher Connel continues to shine as the group’s most talented artist, Oliver Kilbourn, and there is touching realism as he debates giving up mining for a stipend from wealthy art collector Helen Sutherland (played by Phillippa Wilson).

But it’s David Whitaker, as ultra-dense Jimmy Floyd, who regularly steals scenes with a string of glorious gags. The Geordie accent adds to the hilarity when he’s asked if the flowers he’s painted are peonies, bringing the reply that there weren’t any ponies in the picture.

Director Max Roberts’ fastpaced masterpiece develops even greater visual imagery in the second half as harsh reality finally tramples the dreams of these sons of toil. But what a beacon of hope this is for North-East aspirations right up to the final curtain.

■ Runs until tomorrow. Box office: 08448-112-121