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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...
Cabaret: Janie Dee

Caught Janie Dee in concert tonight. She is an awfully talented singer, dancer, actor from the British stage and it seemed like various odd sorts of theatre types came out of the woodwork to see her perform at the Shaw Theatre. The Shaw Theatre is just around the corner from where I live so it was very handy to get to...

Her choice of music was varied and often was new music. Some of it was worth hearing as well. She also premiered a new Andrew Lloyd-Webber song "All the love I have". Well the music has been around for a while - I have the previous version on CD - it was just given new lyrics and a different orchestration (apparently this counts for a new song). But aside from an unfortunate foray into Ave Maria and a song called "No-one believes in a Mermaid" it was a great evening.


Overheard at the Theatre Friday night:

Old Luvvie (to female companion): Well there are three men who are very talented who are vying for the leadership so the Jewish one with the immigrant parents had to do something.

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