Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...As was the case when it produced "The History Boys" (another British play that looks at art, class, work and education), TimeLine has huge advantages over the Broadway production — even though that cast mostly came from just a few miles from where the Ashington Group first picked up their brushes and started painting mine shafts, picks, coal seams and workers at once triumphantly muscular and bowed by the quotidian horrors of 48 hours a week underground. Granted, the Brits got the north-country humor and irreverence more fully, but TimeLine has Chicago-style intimacy and its ensemble tradition."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Already a hit in London and New York, Hall’s fervent drama is now receiving an altogether superlative U.S. regional premiere at TimeLine Theatre, where director BJ Jones and his spot-on cast sweep their powerful brushstrokes right across your heart."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Lee Hall hammers at the same working-class-vs.-creative-class themes he explored in Billy Elliot, but this eloquent, decidedly didactic play about the Ashington Group—English coal miners who took up painting and became art-world darlings in the 1930s--doesn't quite soar the same way. The camaraderie and clowning of the early ensemble scenes fade away in the second act in favor of predictable two-person talking-point sessions exploring the role of a wealthy patroness who challenges the men's class identity."
Examiner
- Recommended
"...Directed by BJ Jones, TimeLine Theatre’s staging of the piece is a triumph of fine directing and deftly etched performances over a script that loses most of its story-telling momentum in the second act. Based on the true story Northumberland miners blossoming into internationally acclaimed artists, Hall doesn’t lack for rich, dramatic material. Which makes it all the more frustrating when the dramatic arc all but flatlines in a second half filled with dialogue that sounds more like the proclamations of polished debaters than the down-to-earth conversations of regular folk."
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...These are a lot of weighty ideas to put into the mouths of provincial rustics (did I mention the discussions of art's operative process and social dynamic?) but director B.J. Jones has assembled a cast of actors capable of projecting individualized conviction—whether that of sturdy Geordie colliers or effete city-dwellers—to forge unforgettable characters of depth far greater than the facile stereotypes of sentimental allegories."
Centerstage
- Highly Recommended
"...In 1934, a group of northern English coal miners hired a college professor, Robert Lyon, to teach them art appreciation, but the class turned from art theory and history to practical application and artistic expression. The resulting play is about men who respected themselves, each other and their contribution to their families and the community. The group’s devotion to their painting became an extension of their collective dignity, and the play poses questions about the meaning of art, realism versus abstraction, the value of painting compared to its worth and the clash of cultures. These ideas are discussed with humorous and thought-provoking results and while it isn’t new ground, in such an entertaining production audiences will forget that and simply enjoy the ride."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Under BJ Jones’s calm, precise direction, the cast delightfully captures the Ashington group’s confusion and excitement as it ventures into the artistic world. The pitmen develop a familial bond through their creative expression, and the ensemble’s chemistry creates an environment in which Hall’s rich characters flourish. Dialects are consistent and intuitive across the board, and the strength of the cast’s technique puts the focus on the emotional relationships of the characters rather than the practical skills of the actors."
Chicago On the Aisle
- Highly Recommended
"...“The Pitmen Painters” is not only about unlocking genius but also about the first principle of artistic creativity: the freeing of imagination, the discovery of self. The play is filled with wonderful, earthy, honest characters whose voyage of discovery is limned here with humor, sensitivity and conviction. Even as they unleash their inner Rembrandts, these miners call their mutual criticism as they see it. They are pals, and their stunning candor is infectious."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...The play is a triumph of the human spirit that looks at art as an intrinsic part of the human condition. This story pays homage to that urge. BJ Jones and his cast gave truthful performances that make the discussion of art fun."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...Despite its bittersweet, sardonic ending, “The Pitmen Painters” is ennobled by eight burning performances, including William Dick’s pitbull of a union leader and Jordan Brown as both a “real” artist and the group’s official groupie. This show is a dynamic action painting in its own right, with a heart as big as Timothy Mann’s vast beamed setting and a focus as accurate as Jacqueline Firkins’ class-conscious costumes. TimeLine’s triumph is the first success of the season."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...The current production, Lee Hall’s “The Pitmen Painters”, is a wonderful story about miners in Northern England, who are asked to better educate themselves and so they form a group to study. Their original request to learn about economics became tabled as they could not find an instructor and they end up with a class in art appreciation. the time was 1934, not an easy time and for miners who crawled in the tunnels all day, this group of men cleaned up pretty well as they came to the WEA Hall for their first lesson. What these men learn is far greater than the appreciation of art, but that art is something within and that your educational and social upbringing has little to do with what you see in art. Yes, what you feel is yours and can and will differ from what others see and feel."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Lee Hall tells an inspirational story of transformation. The dialogue is witty. The blue collar workers remove pretention from the art. Their awakening is not ‘art imitating life or life imitating art.’ Their art is their life. Their life is their art. Under the skillful direction of BJ Jones, the poignant experiences are clearly visible."
