THE cast has assembled for rehearsals of Damian Cruden’s revival of Brassed Off at York Theatre Royal.

Damian first staged Paul Allen’s musical stage adaptation of York film-maker Mark Herman’s story of a Yorkshire mining village facing up to the pit’s closure.

That 2004 production deserved a tour at the time. Instead, Brassed Off now returns to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike of 1984 in a Theatre Royal touring co-production with the Bolton Octagon and Touring Consortium Theatre Company.

“We talked with the Touring Consortium about a lot of potential shows we could do, but Brassed Off was the one that made the most sense, and being the anniversary it seemed the perfect time to put it on,” says artistic director Damian.

Brassed Off’s heart-warming celebration of human endeavour and community spirit against the odds is set in 1992, when Grimley Colliery faces the threat of closure and the future of the colliery brass band is thrown into uncertainty.

“It’s a really interesting piece because there’s an incredible sadness to it but it’s also phenomenally uplifting,” says Damian.

“To have a big show like this straight after our pantomime, with community players in the live band at every performance, means the show covers lots of positive aspects for this time of the year.”

The 2014 production will have a different designer, Dawn Allsopp, while the cast is a mixture of the new and actors from the 2004 production.

Luke Adamson, fresh from Blood + Chocolate last autumn, will reprise his role as narrator Shane, while Andrew Dunn returns as the troubled, broke trombone player and hopeless children’s entertainer, Phil.

Brookside soap star John McArdle makes his Theatre Royal debut as band leader Danny, the role that Fine Time Fontayne played so memorably last time.

“Everyone spoke very highly of John before he came through to York to visit the theatre, and we’re now working together for the first time,” says Damian.

Thirty years on from the splenetic, divisive 1984 Miners’ Strike, this production will offer the chance to contemplate the on-going repercussions of a strike whose scars run so deep.

“You look at the lineage of those communities; ask where are these people now and what has happened to those communities,” says Damian.

“The miners’ strike marked a change in the way this country was governed and we are now at the fin-de-siecle in that process. The dismantling of communities is the fruition of that, after the Tory government took on the unions in a clear attempt to challenge that part of our community.

“The debate has not gone away. Maybe the NUM is not the critical union in this country anymore, but there’s still a role to play in our lives, and you need to look at everything that is being talked about in terms of the wealth divide between London and the rest of the country. Jobs, house prices, all those dimensions are being played out, and the call should not be for a minimum wage but a working wage.”

The notion of socialism may not be at the forefront of people’s minds, says Damian, but the principles of social justice have not gone away.

“A lot of people have come up and said that the return of Brassed Off has reminded them of their role in the strike in Yorkshire at the time and their support of the miners,” he notes.

“People see it as the struggle for the notion of community and industry against the policy of asset stripping. I don’t think fossil fuels are the best answer but I do think we should be burning our own fossil fuels rather than importing them.”

• Brassed Off runs at York Theatre Royal from February 14 to March 1. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk