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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...

Chats and swipes: Love Me Now @TristanBates

Casual encounters are in the spotlight in Love Me Now. It’s a new play by Michelle Barnette playing at Tristan Bates Theatre. Not so much about love gone wrong but about the young and the loveless. There are no names in this piece as three characters move in and out of each others lives with sex and idle chatter. 

Set over a series of hookups, the main focuse of the piece is on a  woman (Helena Wilson) and her regular date (Alistair Toovey). Much of the piece is set in and around the bed. Before and after sex. She wants something more from the regular encounters. He’s more blow and go. And her attempts to get equal treatment only lead to disaster.  

Later she finds another man (Gianbruno Spena) who says the right things but it turns out to be the same man in a different package.

Along the way the hedonism and partial nudity are at times hilarious. Wilson is engaging as the frank and seemingly carefree woman with one-liners about blowjobs. Toovey is convincing as a fit young man who’s alternatively loveable and to be feared. Spena is enjoyable as the smooth and patronising alternative lover. 

Told in fragments, the piece comes together towards the end where experiences taint what could be. The conversations build as an attack on the woman at the centre of the story. A mistake becomes the work of an evil bitch. Wanting something more becomes being needy.  But this also darkens the piece and reduces the male characters to mere villains in a battle of the sexes. 

Still there’s enough in the provocative writing and strong  performances to hold your interest throughout the piece. Although it’s probably not a show to take someone on a first date. Especially if you met them on Tinder. 

Directed by Jamie Armitage, Love Me Now is at the Tristan Bates Theatre until 14 April. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️


Photos by Helen Murray

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