ONE BIG BLOW Tickets and Dates

One Big Blow by John Burrows

‘Written and first produced for The 7:84 theatre company in 1980 when it toured for two years, the play concerns the lives of 6 miners in a coal village who also form the colliery brass band. If the storyline seems familiar, it is, having been largely replicated in the 1996 film Brassed Off, but here the seam runs much deeper. Granted there's a direct comparison in that the band provides a means of escape and extended camaraderie in both versions, but the play also provides a damming insight into the actual conditions that the miners endured. Yet it achieves this without ever preaching or demanding your sympathy - its dispassionate portrayal simply hopes you gain a respectful understanding of how things were.’