PITMEN, painters and playwrights; the North- East has plenty to be proud of, but it is difficult to know which is the greatest export and who made the most money.

I think we can be certain it wasn’t the pitmen, whose daily grind was grim and tortuous.

The Ashington band of pitmen who decided to employ an art teacher, as documented in art critic William Feaver’s book, were perhaps a little richer, both in monetary terms and cultural enlightenment.

It is no surprise that Newcastle-born playwright Lee Hall, the son of a painter and decorator who has found a rare seam of money-making ideas from his home region, was inspired by the gritty miners.

Billy Elliot and The Pitmen Painters have both been translated and exported to receive richly-deserved applause from the rest of the world.

The Pitmen Painters is part true, part imagination and wholly patriotic. Hall has captured culture in the common man with straightforward Northern humour that makes this story so accessible and deeply moving.

Reviewed and acclaimed many times, from director Max Roberts’ sell-out 2008 original at the Live Theatre, Newcastle, to Broadway in 2010, the cast has changed a few times.

Darlington celebrates the combined success of this play with Nicholas Lumley, Philip Correia, Donald McBride, Riley Jones, Joe Caffrey, Louis Hilyer, Catherine Dryden, and Suzy Cooper, plus Gary McCann’s enduring set and Martin Hodgson’s evocative soundscape and, of course, Lee Hall’s imagination and a sprinkling of magic coal dust.

  • Runs until Saturday. Tickets are £17.50 to £27, on 01325-486555.

Helen Brown