It’s clearly a heartfelt polemic, directed masterfully by Edward Hall, pulling no punches about what Beth sees as the evil machinations of Margaret Thatcher , her almost manic adviser David Hart, the obsessive economist Milton Friedman and the blood and guts poetry of the miners themselves, portrayed vividly in words and song.
I grew up with the splendid Close The Coalhouse Door – a similar poetic polemic about the coalfields , but the politics in this re-enactment of the death of an entire industry is stronger, more direct and heart-wrenching in its many personal tragedies.
The actors portraying the miners, young and not so young all perform with a passion you can see in their eyes, and none more so than their underground leader The Colonel, played with sinuous physicality, roaring passion and poetry by Paul Brennan.
But this is no easy one-sided view of our recent industrial strife. The miners are conflicted among themselves and their genuine hardship leads to different attitudes to work and well-being.
Wonderland can be streamed until Sunday 12 April on hampsteadtheatre.com