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The Green, Green Grass of Home: Mr Jones An Aberfan Story - Finborough Theatre

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A life of hope and promise, interrupted, lies at the heart of Mr Jones: an Aberfan Story. The play follows two young people in Aberfan before and after the disaster that killed 144 people, including 116 children. It’s an emotional coming-of-age tale of intersecting lives, family, love, and the shock of tragedy. With two vivid performances and strong characterisations, you feel immersed in 1960s Welsh small-town life. It’s now running at the Finborough Theatre , after performances at the Edinburgh Festival and across Wales.  The Aberfan disaster is well known in the UK but perhaps less so elsewhere. The facts of the tragedy are confined to the programme notes rather than in the piece. On 21 October 1966, the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on a mountain above Aberfan engulfed a local school, killing many. The play avoids the causes and negligence, instead focusing on those working and building lives in the town.  Writer-performer Liam Holmes plays Stephen Jones, a...
Theatre: Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel was a fabulous little diversion for the evening, the weekend, the month... The run at the Donmar has completely sold out and for good reason since the show is so stylish and cleverly put together with a great cast.

There is not much set just the back of the hotel sign and a few props. The blanks are filled in with songs and dancing. So who could fault that? The history of this musical is that it was based on the 1938 film, but also on a failed musicalised version in the 1950s by the collaborators on Kismet. Half the songs were replaced in this version and it probably was for the best as while the shift in music styles is noticeable it also helps keep things moving. There is no interval but the one hour and 45 minutes just breezes by.

This production tells a much darker story than the film, but that probably suits modern tastes. Best of all was the Baron, played by Julian Ovenden - who was eye candy and ear candy with his looks and tenor voice. Even better was the scene in which he was on the couch underneath Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio looking into her eyes (and the rest). Sitting front row in the circle you could be forgiven for mistaking that he was making eyes with the audience... That's part of the intimate experience of live theatre that they don't always tell you about...

Housekeeping

As I drag this blog site out of mothballs, I will be looking at the format of the blog over the next few days. As more new postings go online the ones from 2003 will disappear as well I expect. The rest I will make up as I go along. And the blog will be more about me. Actually come to think of it, I am not sure if anyone will see any noticable changes!

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