Powerful drama The Revlon Girl comes to local venues

The Revlon Girl is based on real events and is set eight months after the disaster. Following the dreadful - and preventable - collapse of the coal tip which killed 116 children in the local primary school.

The bereaved mothers of Aberfan set up a club that met weekly in the room above the local pub. For one of their meetings, they invited a young woman to give them a make-up and beauty demonstration, to help them try to feel normal again after the unimaginable events of the previous October.

Neil Anthony Docking took that event and turned it into a five-woman play of extraordinary power and humanity. The astonishing script sweeps from aching loss to hilarious South Wales valleys humour, and back again. ‘The Revlon Girl’ won Best New Play at the 2018 Off-West End Awards and was also nominated for an Olivier Award.

Watching as the mothers unfold their individual stories, it’s impossible to miss the parallels with more recent – and equally preventable – tragedies, such as Hillsborough and Grenfell. But this play is also about warmth and friendship and survival.

Rona, one of the mums in the play, remarks with fierce bitterness that “in forty or fifty years, no one will remember what happened here anyway”. The director and cast of this powerful production would like to prove her wrong. With respect and heartfelt empathy for the real mums who lived through such incomprehensible tragedy, Stage Five Theatre presents The Revlon Girl.

Performances:

• Thursday, March 12 at 7.30pm, Trefonen Village Hall

• Friday, March 13 at 7.30pm, Llansilin Memorial Hall

• Sunday, March 15 at 2.30pm, Oswestry Community Centre (Lorne Street)

• Thursday, March 19 at 7.30pm, Llanymynech Village Hall

• Friday, March 20 at 7.30pm, Welshampton Parish Hall

• Saturday, March 21 at 7.30pm, Newtown Powys Theatre

Visit stagefivetheatre.co.uk for tickets or contact Pam Johnson on 07814 489713 or stagefivetheatre@gmail.com.