The Glee Club – Theatre by the Lake
The wheels of the pit shaft create the backdrop for this coming of age play, writes Karen Morley-Chesworth.
Music has always been at the heart of mining communities - and the latest production at Theatre by the Lake takes us back to 1962 to join the five pitmen who aren't in the brass band but singers in The Glee Club.
This is a beautiful ensemble of five actors who take us back to when coal was king and the men who dug it out, deep in the bowels of the earth, were hard-working, hard-drinking and resolved issues with their fists.
The Glee Club is an outlet for emotion and sensitivity that appears on the surface to be missing from the lives of these men - and we get to enjoy some great singing.
Under the veneer of laughter, the older men are still scared by their loss and experi...