wonderland

Nottingham Playhouse

director: Adam Penford

composition & sound design: Jon Nicholls

Nottinghamshire, 1983. Two 16 year olds wait nervously at the pithead. Guided by a veteran miner, they descend into the brotherhood, banter, searing heat and liquid blue light of Welbeck Colliery. 

Meanwhile in London, an American CEO known as The Butcher is brought in to reform King Coal. Pits close and a strike is called. 

A Tory MP tussles with his leader’s hard line ideology, whilst an eccentric dandy is sent undercover to break up the strike. Cracks appear on all sides as the embattled miners are torn apart trying to protect their livelihoods and families. Nothing will be the same again.

Beth Steel drew on her own family’s mining heritage to create this extraordinarily powerful play.

Jon’s score mixed intense industrial soundscapes with live folk singing and digitally manipulated brass band textures.