CHRIS Connel has left behind one coal-mining play to star in another.

After the massive high of taking The Pitmen Painters to the National Theatre, the West End and Broadway, the Newcastle actor is on tour in a revival of Alan Plater’s Close The Coalhouse Door that visits York Theatre Royal from Tuesday to Saturday.

“It sits pretty much in the same place as The Pitmen Painters and I’m just as excited to be doing this because it’s such a fun show to be part of,” says Chris.

“As soon as I heard I had a chance of casting for it, I really wanted to do it and was over the moon when I was chosen.”

Plater’s play was first staged by Newcastle’s Live Theatre in 1968 and is being revived by Northern Stage and Newcastle Live with Sam West as director as a tribute to the Hull playwright, who died last year.

To bring the story up to date, Lee Hall, aptly The Pitmen Painters’ playwright, has added scenes at the start and end.

“This is a legendary work and everyone knows the story of Newcastle pitmen missing the game at St James’ Park to come and see a matinee performance,” says Chris. “I’ve read it plenty of times and it’s quite an event really. I wouldn’t call it a drama or even a comedy-drama. It’s a big event and quite bold and out there at times.

“There’s something a bit different about it because the fourth wall gets broken a lot during the play and the audience are part of the piece and the decision-making of the characters. I imagine they’re going to feel that they’re actually involved in the process.”

Using the stories of Sid Chaplin and the songs of Alex Glasgow, the play reflects all the major strikes, victories and disappointments in British mining history from the formation of the first unions in 1831.

Chris plays Jackie, a trade union man who says what he thinks and uses a wry sense of humour.

“He’s quite smart for the time, but he’s not the sort heading for Paris or Milan; he’s heading for Newcastle and Hartlepool.

“So maybe the cut of his cloth is a little bit better than most of the people in the village, but he certainly wouldn’t look fashionable landing in London.”

Chris has met a few union men over the years and used them as an inspiration for Jackie. “We also watched the old Pathé newsreels of the time to get the romanticised idea of that time,” he adds.

The ensemble nature of Plater’s piece allows most of the large cast to be in every scene, apart from the love scenes of John (played by Paul Woodson) and Ruth (Louisa Farrant).

“The love story is the drama of the piece while the rest of the cast support each other, so the pressure is spread across the board. And the more you can enjoy something like this the better,” says Chris.

How important was bringing in such esteemed theatrical names as Sam West and Lee Hall? “I’ve never worked with Sam before, but I’m absolutely enjoying every minute. He’s really thorough, but he makes it good fun as well,” says Chris. “Lee has been working on this for ages and book-ended it with two modern scenes to bring the play up to date.

“Without wanting to give too much away, there are stories added that are within living memory. But it’s also nice to see what miners of that time saw as the future.

“The industry wasn’t seen as dying in the 1960s, although numbers were falling. The union was very powerful at the time and as far as I’m aware, the miners of the time still believed that it was a job for life in 1968. The impression was of an industry where you won the fights you wanted to win about 20 years later rather than at the time.”

The play’s title, Close The Coalhouse Door, does mean different things today. Chris reckons some may see it now as predicting the end of the north’s heavy industry. Older people might reflect on the days when every home had a coalhouse.

“I’ve still got a coal fire, but it comes in nice clean plastic bags from the garage now and isn’t poured through a hole in your backyard,” says Chris. “I do still see coal wagons around in Walker, where I live, but it’s not stuffed to the gunnels any more with sacks of coal.”

The cast is keen to present the play in the way it was originally intended, rather than let it be seen as a tribute to Plater.

“People will take different things from when audiences first saw it in 1968, or when it was revived in 1994. What we want to do is let it stand by itself. We don’t want it to be a bit of Geordie-rama or a trip down memory lane. People will learn a lot, but it’s hilarious fun as well with an air of carnival,” says Chris. “We certainly don’t want it to be seen as a tub-thumping political rant.”

• Close The Coalhouse Door runs at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday to next Saturday, 7.30pm, plus 2pm, Thursday, and 2.30pm, next Saturday.