YOU ARE VIEWING ARTICLE - ID:20070611011

Book and Music:   Peter Fearnley
Director:             Ian Enters
Music Director:    Helen Lyle
Company:           Steel Valley Beacon Arts

Old King Coal is an original and powerful musical play written and composed by one of Steel Valley Beacon Arts’ company: Peter Fearnley. It is written in memory of his father and tells the story of one mining family living through the 1984 miners’ strike. Old King Coal has eighteen songs of great strength and sensitivity, ranging from the aggression of 'English Civil War' to the haunting sorrow of 'There’s an Illness in this Place' and the joie de vivre of 'Sisters'.

Such is the interest in and engagement with this venture that we have over fifty people performing in different venues in South and West Yorkshire, including Dearne Playhouse in Goldthorpe and the National Mining Museum at the former Caphouse Colliery in Wakefield.

Mary and Bill Bradfield, respected figures in Coakley Pit Village and the Union, lost their eldest boy in a pit accident. The memory of this haunts their lives. Their two daughters, Jan and Chrissie, have married miners, but they have differing views about the local community and its reliance on mining. Chrissie, married to Alan, has ambition to move beyond the village of Coakley, but Jan holds firm with Geoff, her husband, to the need for solidarity in the face of a systematic assault on the viability of the mining industry. When the national strike occurs, family frictions threaten to split the community.

Steel Valley Beacon Arts employs professional artists to direct and support the amateur community company of all ages. This production has seven to seventy year olds performing in it. The director is Ian Enters. He was responsible for directing the company in last year’s inspirationally successful production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also brought the professional production of his own Avalon, the opera, to Yorkshire and worked with Steel Valley Beacon Arts to develop its community and educational programme. The musical director is Helen Lyle. She is a brilliant teacher of singing, runs her own choir and specialises in enabling people with no or little experience to sing in parts with great enjoyment, clarity and feeling.

The premiere tour of Old King Coal will be at St John’s Church, Deepcar, Dearne Playhouse, Silkstone Lodge and The National Coal Mining Museum in the last week of June. Performance dates and times are listed overleaf and further details are available at
http://mysite.orange.co.uk/old-king-coal
Review tickets are available for each performance.

STEEL VALLEY BEACON ARTS
presents
OLD KING COAL

A musical drama set at the time of the 1984-85 Miner’s Strike

St John’s Church, Deepcar - Fri 22 June 7.30pm - Sat 23 June 2.30pm + 7.30pm Dearne Playhouse, Goldthorpe - Mon 25 June 7.30pm - Wed 27 June 7.30pm
Silkstone Lodge, Silkstone - Thurs 28 June 7.30pm
National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield - Sat 30 June 7.30pm

Tickets (£5 adults, £3 concessions, £10 family)
available from 0114 2882498, plus Dearne Playhouse (01709 894128) and National Coal Mining Museum (01924 848806) and from cast members
Web site: http://mysite.orange.co.uk/old-king-coal

There are no pictures to accompany this article