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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: Burn not chatroom then citizenship...

Monday night I forgot I was at the National Theatre again to see "Burn, Chatroom and Citizenship" – three new one-act plays. Except that they only perform two and I was stuck with "Burn" during the first half. It was a bit of a bore, although had some nice commentary about social workers and car stealing. The second half was "Citizenship" and it was much more lively and funnier (no surprise when it was written by Mark Ravenhill of "Shopping and Fucking" fame). The tale about a boy who sees a girl and gets her pregnant while looking for a gay relationship was pretty funny. The characters and dialogue were fantastic (even if the plot was a bit suspect)…

The crowd was a very young crowd as these performances were originally performed at the NT last year by school children, and they all have yoof feemes and all that… So once you got past the audience belching and laughing at the wrong parts it was a good night out…  

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