THE weekend saw Lochgelly Centre play host to the National Theatre of Scotland’s rip-roaring production of In Time O’ Strife and our show critic Kerry Black went along to see how the production went and she was pleased with what she saw.

This play was originally written by Joe Corrie of Cardenden in the 1920’s to reflect the Miners Strike, but has been re-imagined by Graham McLaren, to include the strikes of the 1980s too.

Rather than being in the main theatre, the play was presented in the games hall which had been transformed to an old time Miners Village Hall, complete with wee stage and band, representing the Fife village of Carhill (incidentally the name of the village in fellow Cardenden writer Ian Rankin’s first novel, The Flood) The small multi-talented cast, danced, sang and even played musical instruments as they warmed the audience up with protest songs from the 1920s to Pete Seger. Anita Vettesse’s performance of Dirty Old Town, which sent shivers down my spine. She sounded like a smouldering torch singer, even if she was dressed in frumpy faded florals.

The enduring image of the pits will always be the large pit head wheels and the themes of wheels and circles was well incorporated in the play. The miners were totally at the mercy of the “maisters”, struggling and striking themselves to utter starvation in their desire to be recognised as a decent workforce with rights.

Interspersed with the 1920s story of families fighting for dignity, were black and white films of the 1980s miners strikes. This must surely be the only time ever that Maggie Thatcher’s voice will be heard in a Fife mining toun! To reflect the fact that the struggles were just as difficult in the different eras, in key scenes, the company donned nylon anoraks and modern day reflective pit jackets.

To generations raised on the NHS, the thought of not being able to see a doctor as you had no money seems obscene. As the cast said, stopping the Parish Relief was akin to murder. They were balancing starvation with the threat of death.

Despite the sombre theme, the whole show was infused with guid Scot’s humour. One startling fact was how the strength of the female characters was portrayed, the men may have had to dig the coal, but it was the women who kept the families together. Ever fearful of the day their men would be returned in a bag, identified only by the buttons on their jackets.

The miners of both eras had great hope that they would be offered better conditions and wages, sadly history proves that neither strike had the outcome they dreamt of.

The play attacks, the maisters, the medical profession and even the minister as folk struggled to maintain faith in the face of disaster. Families were torn apart as they were literally starved into returning to work.

The whole ensemble were brilliant, however, particular mention must go to Tom McGovern (of The Cone Gatherers) who seems to specialise in tormented Scotsmen!

With impressive physical choreography and music, the set pieces, especially when they recited Corrie’s poetry made the audience gasp and weep. While some may mourn the demise of the Fife pits, not many would want to turn the pit wheels back to such tragedy and despair.