One Big Blow

A colourful, emotive and witty production featuring six actors in this influential play about the mining industry and brass bands!
The Boys are back on the road! Ten years after Romiley Little Theatre brought One Big Blow to The Swallow Theatre, they return as part of a third UK tour.
This influential play about the mining industry and brass bands was written 15 years before ‘Brassed Off!’ and tells of a colliery brass band going to the Mineworkers’ Championship in Blackpool.
The band, all miners, discover that Wally, their star cornet player, can no longer play because he has pneumoconiosis. After trying to persuade him to get out of his sick bed to no avail, they are forced to employ the services of the mad Welshman, Psycho.
Written in 1981 by playwright John Burrows, with original music by Rick Lloyd, it was first produced by John McGrath’s Scottish political theatre group 7:84, with Lloyd and some of the cast later going on to form The Flying Pickets.
The play is a strong indictment of the lack of culpability shown by the then National Coal Board towards health problems suffered by miners, such as emphysema and pneumoconiosis.
This colourful, emotive and witty production features six actors but no instruments, all the songs and band pieces being performed a cappella.
Following successful runs back in 2007 and 2012, including two UK tours which took in venues from The Swallow Theatre to the Kings Head in London, this popular show is now back on the road.
Don’t miss this triumphant return!