COAL is part of the North-East’s DNA.

Jarrow lad Alan Plater knew the people who fought and died for coal; his play, based on stories by Sid Chaplin, is now revisited by director Samuel West with additional material from Lee Hall, and captures the heart and soul of an industry that tore the nation apart in the 1960s.

Soutra Gilmour’s design uses the iconic pithead winding gear under which nestles a boarded-up brick house on a turntable between thick steel girders. The cast, bent double with effort, push the walls of the house to produce the Milburns’ living room, a narrow coal tunnel and a backdrop of pure white that silhouettes images of daily toil.

Grandparents Mary Ann and Thomas Milburn are at the head of this Geordie family, their passion and commitment for a better life as rich as the seams of black gold beneath their feet. Jane Holman’s Mary is the head of this family, she makes tea and drinks Newcastle Brown, but the sight of this gutsy grandmother with her pinny playing slide guitar in a rock band is only one of the images that will stay with me.

The whole cast is involved in Alex Glasgow’s inventive songs, which are often funny, at times tragic and pretty much always political. Gritty performances come from Nicholas Lumley and Paul Woodson, and Louisa Farrant’s melodious voice is to die for.

Plater’s masterpiece is an intoxicating ride through the strikes, victories and disappointments in mining history. It’s pitmatic, poetic and passionate and this production runs way past The Pitman Painters and I won’t be surprised if it runs and runs and runs....

􀁧 Until Saturday, May 5, at 7.30pm. Box office: 0191-230- 5151 or northernstage.co.uk Then, June 12 to 16, Gala Theatre Durham City, and June 26 to 30, York Theatre Royal.