‘Blinded By The Light’ is a gem of a play which celebrates a group of miners fighting to preserve their community, their jobs and their way of life. But at the same time it shows us a future where life has become unsustainable on our planet.
Playwright Sylvia Dow was teaching at Bo’Ness Academy in 1982 when the National Coal Board decided to close the town’s Kinneil Colliery on the grounds that it was no longer workable. This was disputed by the miners who believed there was a hundred years’ worth of coal left for them and their descendants to mine. Twelve of them (nicknamed ‘the dirty dozen’) decided to stage a ‘stay-doon’ in the deep pit tunnel under the River Forth. This was two years before the Miners’ Strike of 1984.
Two of the actors playing miners are from Bo’Ness and the town’s Barony Theatre staged the premiere of this production. The writer has also talked with many Bo’Ness residents about their recollections of the colliery. So, this is a play which has to a great extent been inspired and nurtured by the community of Bo’Ness. But the Traverse also deserves credit for staging an earlier version of the play at the Edinburgh Fringe eleven years ago and then staging a performed reading in 2022.
Sylivia Dow’s writing crackles with energy. She tells the two stories beautifully. The writing is nuanced. No words are wasted. Like JB Priestley she is intrigued by time. There is subtle communication between people living two hundred years apart but in the same physical space.
Dow’s long time collaborator, Philip Howard, expertly directs with clarity and flamboyance, making good use of movement, and weaving the two stories together so seamlessly that it seems perfectly natural for the characters from the two different times to share the same space.
The acting by the ensemble of five actors is wonderful. They are all entertaining, and completely believable.
Three actors represent the ‘dirty dozen’. Their camaraderie (and the occasional falling out) is convincingly portrayed.
Andrew Rothney plays the exuberant Jerry. He sets the scene, telling us he was only 18 in 1982, and tries to get the audience to understand how deep they are below ground – 2000 feet. His hilarious reenactment of his role as the sword-wielding king in his school play is just one of the highlights. (Ironically Rothney was actually directed in a school production by the writer.)
Barrie Hunter plays Matt (Jerry’s father). He reads the Daily Worker every day and is furious with what he sees as the betrayal of the Bo’Ness miners by union leaders. He fancies himself as a singer and particularly likes John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘I did it my way’ (which he sings rather well). He coughs convincingly from time to time, complaining about the coal dust.
Rhys Anderson plays Andy. He’s the most cynical of the three, not really convinced their protest will achieve much. He’s the ‘quiet man’ at first but skilfully captures an abrupt change when his irritation with the others, particularly Jerry, boils over. They actually have a physical fight, well arranged by EmmaClaire Brightlyn.
In the world of 2282, Reece Montague plays Freddie and Holly Howden Gilchrist plays Lily. The young actors have an excellent rapport, and their burgeoning relationship is delightfully portrayed.
They live in a world where people die young because, Lily tells us, they have no light. Freddie and Lily work in the Book Renovation Department, preserving the books of their ancestors. Lily reads some of the books although they’re not allowed to. Their ancestors came below ground one hundred years ago. Addressing the audience directly, Lily says “They had to. Why? Well, you can guess, can’t you?”
One day, they have been assured, they’ll be able to go above ground to the ‘upper world’ and see the light. Then they’ll even be allowed to read the books they’ve been conserving. But Lily, who describes herself as a ‘rebel with a cause’ is impatient and hatches a plan to go there now. Freddie is afraid to go above ground but accompanies Lily on the journey to the outside door. What happens next leads Lily to conclude that they, like the miners two hundred years earlier, have been betrayed. She has, literally and figuratively, seen the light.
Becky Minto’s simple set perfectly captures the cold claustrophobic atmosphere underground. And her costume designs tell their own story: the miners in coal-dirty orange overalls and the young couple in 2082 in identical dark uniforms suppressing individuality.
Philip Pinsky has composed the beguiling music and sound effects. The rousing ‘Kinneil Song’, sung movingly and with gusto by the entire cast, was written by Glen Muir.
Colin Grenfell’s lighting enhances the underground atmosphere and rightly makes a big statement at the end of the play.
It might appear incongruous that this play celebrates the miners, hewers of a fossil fuel, while at the same time portraying a future world in which our excessive use of fossil fuels has made the planet uninhabitable.
But the play celebrates the mining community not coal. and certainly not the job of coal mining which was fraught with the dangers of pit accidents and the long term health hazards of inhaling coal dust.
We speak now of a ‘just transition’ for oil workers so that they can be trained for other jobs, mainly in renewable energy. But there was far less concern for miners in the 1980s when whole communities were destroyed or seriously damaged.
43 years after the Kinneil Colliery was closed, this play celebrates the community spirit of the miners and their families but also warns us that in 2025 we could be facing not just the destruction of individual communities but the whole world as we know it.
The play also celebrates knowledge. Authoritarian regimes don’t like their citizens to have knowledge which is why they often ban or restrict books.
Director Philip Howard has said that Sylvia Dow’s writing is not ‘preachy’ and he is right. ‘Blinded By The Light’ does have messages but they are subtly delivered.
This is above all an enthralling theatrical experience. It’s wonderfully entertaining. And packed into just 70 minutes which pass all too quickly.
This was a single performance at the Traverse, but ‘Blinded By The Light’ is touring. For details see www.sylvianproductions.co.uk/productions/blinded-by-the-light-2025/
Reviewer: Tom Scott
Reviewed: 21st May 2025
North West End UK Rating: