Check King Coal
Oval House, Kennington, January 1985

Check King Coal is about the 1984/5 miners’ strike. Based on interviews with all the main protagonists in this year long dispute, the play interweaves their edited voices as a chess game. There are two sides. Each moves in turn, strictly according to the rules. Strictly, that is, to begin with.

writer/director: Sheila Hill
Photographers: Paul Ratigan and Nick Dittrich

“It was only a game after all – even if, as Oh, What a Lovely War demonstrated, games can stand for something very much more serious.”
The Times