Aberfan will be very proud
On the morning of Friday 21st October 1966, the mining village of Aberfan experienced one of the worst tragedies in Welsh history when 144 people, 116 of whom were children, lost their lives after more than 150,00 tonnes of thick, black slurry slid down the hill crushing houses and engulfing Pantglas Junior School, writes Linda Emmanuel.
In this two-hander, beautifully written by Liam Holmes who plays Stephen Jones, the 17-year-old Stephen has great ambitions to be in the Welsh National Rugby team one day and to achieve that goal, we see him practise his kicking and penalties, feel his joy at scoring conversions and join in the celebrations of his success.
We are also witness to his awkward teenage feelings of love for Angharad Price (Mabli Gwynne) a young nurse, a couple of years older. They have lovely, humorous, chats about the various characters who populate the village such as Dafydd, Stephen’s 8-year-old brother who attends Pantglas Junior School and who looks up to his big brother, following him around every moment he could and whose trousers always need mending by Angharad, a good neighbour to Stephen’s family. Then there’s “colour-blind Maggie” the florist, Brenda who runs the bakery and “diabetic Jenny” who couldn’t resist eating sweets.
They share their hopes and dreams of ‘making it’ for the future, and when Stephen gets just a little bit too big for his boots, she dismisses him with “King of the village my arse”.
They have known each other for most of their lives, as experienced through the chemistry displayed – and felt by the audience. Through these two superb actors, we are reminded of the push and pull of teenage attraction, and the ‘shall we, shall we not’ feelings of butterflies in the tummy, all delicately directed by Michael Neri.
The sound and lighting design, by James ‘Bucky’ Barnes and Alastair Tombs respectively, help to carry the time-jumping narrative along, keeping our attention on the story as it leads us towards the tragedy that breaks the hearts of the Aberfan community: The distant rumble, that sounded like thunder that had not been forecast, the sound clips of survivors and witnesses of the slip, the songs of the Welsh Men’s Choir, and children singing the Welsh National Anthem ‘The Land of my Fathers’ all adding to the emotive tensions of the performance.
Have some tissues at hand for when thoughts of the loss of so many souls, young and old, at the hands of man-made and natural disasters, the world over come to mind. Mr Jones, An Aberfan Story tells of loss, the questioning of ‘God’s timing’, generational traumatic grief and the survival of the human spirit.
I think the people of Aberfan will be very proud of this production, which is full of joy, compassion and understanding of that particularly dark time in their history.
On at the Finborough Arms Theatre until 22nd November 2025.
Booking and full details: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
