THE very mention of it still provokes high emotion, a quarter of a century after the event.

For communities across much of England and Wales, the 1984 Miners’ Strike was a fatal blow from which they never recovered.

And The Enemies Within, a piece of verbatim theatre written by Ron Rose and directed by David Thacker, gave voice to those communities back in 1985.

To commemorate the anniversary David, who is now artistic director of Bolton’s Octagon Theatre, has reassembled most of the original cast of the play for a special production running from Monday, December 14 until the following Saturday.

And speaking to the nine actors in rehearsal, it was clear how passionate they are about the project, and why they had no hesitation about coming back.

As David MacReady says: “It’s not often you get asked to do something and your instant reaction is ‘Yes’. With this, you didn’t even have to think about it.”

Barbara Peirson says: “It was a fantastic experience the first time round, especially having people coming up to you at the end and saying, ‘you were me’. You felt like you were doing a service by putting their voices on stage.”

Like all the cast, Barbara is keen to go back and speak to the people interviewed in Yorkshire to find out about their lives 25 years on.

Margot Leicester says: “People let you into their homes. Two of those families had lost children during the strike — we will never forget that experience or lose our commitment to showing the human cost of what happened. People’s struggle hasn’t gone away.”

When the play was first written, many of the families were wary of talking to the writers and actors, having found their words twisted by the media during the strike. Actor Howard Crossley was friends with many mining families, and it was through him that the crew made some of their most important connections.

“The brick wall went up and we had to break that down,” says Howard.

Barbara adds: “One thing that you heard over and over again from people is that they would never again believe anything they saw on the television. The stories they were telling us weren’t getting through in the media at all.

“I feel that even now people don’t know what really happened. The state rose up to fight those people and that could happen again.”

Margot adds that a BBC producer has since said that footage of the Ollerton riots was reversed to make it seem as though the miners had attacked the police.

Annie Tyson, who now works training actors but has returned to the stage specially for this production, says that some of her students know next to nothing about the strikes, despite being highly politically motivated and concerned about what is going on in the world around them.

All the actors agreed that many of the social problems we now face can trace their origins back to the strike and the Thatcher government’s determination to crush the striking miners. Indeed, the play is named after a phrase which Thatcher used to describe the men on the picket line.

Welsh actor Dyfed Thomas said: “Both my grandfathers were miners. Culturally, linguistically and morally they were strong. It was the same in Yorkshire but after the strike similar communities were basically wiped out. I think people have become very soft now.”

Stephen Tiller, who was a member of the Labour party at the time but left in disgust at what he saw as the party’s betrayal of its roots, says: “The voice of decency and moderation was completely squashed.

“The whole tumult of the time and what’s come out of it — the only thing that compares with recently is the Iraq war.”

Martin Riley adds: “The Labour party we have now is as a direct consequence of that Labour party that Stephen was so disgusted by then.”

Barbara Marten, who also appeared in the Octagon’s production of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass last year, says: “The people in the play were ordinary working class people who this play wanted to give a voice — but they have been silenced now.”

With this revival of The Enemies Within, perhaps that voice can be raised once more.

l The Enemies Within runs at the Octagon Bill Naughton Studio from December 14 to December 19. Tickets cost £12. For more information, visit octagonbolton.co.uk or ring 01204 520661.