Newcastle's Live Theatre is about to re-open with a fanfare for the Ashington painters. Chris Connel talks to Viv Hardwick about bringing the Pitman Painters to life and reveals some of the background used by playwright Lee Hall.

THE idea of rough, tough miners picking up an artist's brush has literally been hewn from the same coal seam as Billy Elliot, with Lee Hall creating the comedy-drama especially for Newcastle Live Theatre's re-opening on Thursday. The Pitman Painters, which will run until October 27, is based on Bill Feaver's book on the famous 1930s story of around 20 miners from Woodhorn Pit who booked an academic to teach them art appreciation and ended up as artists instead.

Tynesider Chris Connel plays the best-known of the group, Oliver Kilbourn, and has been inspired by his real life character who produced hundreds of paintings.

He says: "Kilbourn actually existed and this is his life story pretty much and it involved him working down the pit which was no picnic. My character's quite difficult to play because he doesn't give away too much emotion. He's quite a tough guy and very shy so, as an actor that presents its own problems, because acting is all about emotion and you're playing someone who doesn't emote. You've got to find more subtle ways of getting your message across."

"He's a decent chap and had a hard life because his father was killed and his mother went away to France and he was left to bring up his sister and her children on his own from the age of 14."

The actor drew on his own working class roots in Newcastle's Walker area where he opted for acting at 19 when nobody from the entire street, let alone his family, had ever tried before.

He says: "In the east end of Newcastle, you could take a 1,000 people and probably not find one of them being an actor. So I relate to it in that way, particularly as I only decided to be an actor when I was 19-20. Prior to that I'd done nothing at all."

His stage name of Connel is a deliberate spelling mistake. "When I first adopted that name people kept called me "canell" so I dropped an l and they still said it. "There was a Christopher Nicholl already when I joined Equity and I took my father's middle name which is Connell and to complicate matters my full name is John Christopher Nicholl and I've never been called John in my entire life."

HE calls being chosen as one of the eight actors re-opening the refurbished theatre "the kind of pressure you want. I think everybody in the rehearsal room has responded to it brilliantly because we're all aware of how prestigious this gig is. Live Theatre is an institution in its own right and with it being revamped and redeveloped that's a wonderful thing for the North-East. Then, of course, to have Lee Hall's involvement which means everyone feels privileged to be here. As you can imagine the script's a dream and got just about everything and one of the few plays that you can look at and say 'I can't see anything missing from this.. it's got the lot'. Drama, emotion, everything." He went on-line to do some research of Kilbourn and the Ashington painters and found some video clips of interviews with the miners in 1972. "He was a quiet, reserved man but when you looked at him he doesn't have to shout to be heard. People generally stopped to listen to him, was the impression I got. A man of few words, but always important words. He's the kind of guy who just has people's respect because everyone knew he'd had a tough life and never let it affect him."

He managed to not only view but also hold some of Kilbourn's artwork, particularly The Deluge, which was one of the first paintings he did after art professor Robert Lyon set them the task of painting rather than talking about art.

"It was quite funny just to have it in my hands and very tempting to touch it but you can't do that. It's on a piece of board and whatever they could get their hands on they painted with.

"They used emulsion, high gloss anything because when they started they didn't have all the material of artists. So they were rooting around the backyard or the shed and pulled out whatever paint they had from doing the sitting room or whatever.

"Later they got more refined because they became more famous as a group and for having a shared aesthetic and no patron to influence their work. "They pretty much knocked out the work at one a week and were definitely what you would call prolific. They met every week and were set a task every week by Mr Lyon using a word or emotion and then bring it in the next week. Over his lifetime there were hundreds of paintings."

Connel admits not only is he tempted to buy one of the works but is also threatening to try his hand at painting.

"I bought my partner an oil paint set and she hasn't gone near it for a year so I've been threatening to get it out and to have a go. I think I will because we're going to have an art class at some point in rehearsals," he explains.

On the prospect of the actors all trying their hand at a subject to bring back for criticism he jokes: "There's not many shy and retiring types, so people will speak their minds without sitting on the fence."

KILBOURN'S unusual approach to the unpretentious and naive contributions of the Ashington painters was to feature work underground involving miners.

"A lot of the group decided that the last thing they wanted to paint, after a day in the pit, was the pit itself. Oliver was interested in work underground and he moved on to people because it allowed him to put his feelings somewhere," explains Connel.

Kilbourn worked down the pit until retirement and the group stayed together. "I don't think that he ever felt comfortable with the world that art put him into. They all seemed very much in favour of change but when it came down to it they pretty much liked what they had. Kilbourn wasn't exceptional but the pitmen were fashionable for quite a while, with exhibitions in London, and sold their work. He could have possibly made a living as the most promising of the painters."