In 1st Stage's lively 'Pitmen Painters,' men are proficient with ax and brush

The thud of tools biting into rock. Dripping noises, suggestive of dank subterranean spaces. Early in director Stevie Zimmerman's lively and absorbing production of "The Pitmen Painters," a few shrewd sound cues evoke the dangerous business of coal mining -- the profession of the principal characters in Lee Hall's 2007 play.