Close the Coalhouse Door

A golden wedding party of an old pitman and his wife forms a springboard into reminiscence and reflection about the past. The historical material falls into a three-act pattern: nineteenth-century oppression as the Beginning, between-the-wars chaos as the Middle with post-Nationalization non-Utopia the ambivalent End. Originally written for the Newcastle Playhouse, the play is an outstanding documentary musical. This new edition contains the version memorably presented at Newcastle's Live Theatre in 1994. The music is contained in the script.