COAL

‘COAL’ is a dance theatre piece directed and choreographed by Gary Clarke and is the prequel to his most recent work ‘Wasteland’

It premiered in 2015 and went on to be toured nationally and internationally for 3 further years which I had the pleasure of being involved for the entirety.

The show included 7 professional dancers, a community cast of 4 ‘Pit Women’ (who we found at every different venue: over 100 in total) and 5 community brass players.

‘COAL’ was created to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1984/85 British Miner’s Strike.

‘COAL’ was created to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1984/85 British Miner’s Strike.

“All of us owe the comparative decency to poor drudges underground, blackened to the eyes with their throats full of coal dust, driving their shovels forward with arms and belly muscles of steel”
George Orwell (1934)

PRESS

…Alistair Goldsmith is boisterous, noisy and deftly, broadly comic…The show climaxes with a moving duet by [TC] Howard and the defiant but broken Goldsmith, a sure sign that Clarke and company are after something more vital and heartfelt than caricature.’

Donald Hutera, The Times

Header footage: COAL trailer taken from Gary Clarke Company youtube