Christopher Connel as Oliver Kilbourn in the remarkable play “Pitmen Painters” at the Manhattan Theater Club. A true story of working class artists: English coal miners who transcended their circumstances by way of and through art. An art appreciation class became an art class and the audience goes along for the ride, getting to enjoy some of the most vigorous and passionate art chat anywhere. Some of it cuts so beautifully to the core of things you just want to frame the speeches. I suspect I’ll be reading a few to future classes of mine. A highlight is when the Kilbourn character becomes, almost against his will, more connected to what happens in art than his own instructor. That moment in the play gives chills. First rate stuff . . . and it really happened. And the art they made is beautiful. The point this makes, that everybody can create and can find passion for what they make . . . is a breath of air in the consumer dungeon.
