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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...

Soul searching: From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads @waterlooeast @ibizabowie


If music is the soundtrack to our lives, From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads puts Bowie as the soundtrack for eccentrics, outcasts or just troubled teens.

Adrian Berry’s fascinating play covers a young Bowie fan's pilgrimage to London. He visits his music idol’s London haunts.

It’s part journey of discovering who he is, but also a desire to connect to his father with the music of his hero.

As Martin, Alex Walton contorts and moves about the stage as the lanky awkward teen and occasional other character on the journey. As the sole performer he captures the spirit of the young fan and the people he encounters. But he also engages you as a storyteller of this young man’s journey to London.

Along the way there are Bowie songs, therapy sessions about bulimia and a dream sequence where he speaks to Bowie. The conversation with the other-worldly Bowie is a pre-recorded voice supplied by Rob Newman. Projections of album covers, London locations also hit us along the way.


It is a simple premise that works well in the space of the Waterloo East Theatre. There isn't much to the staging but some simple projections and a few blocks but it is evocative thanks to Walton's performance.

The pilgrimage to sites across London where Bowie lived and work tends to drag (and take the focus off Martin). But the search for the meaning of life through the music of Bowie can’t be a bad thing. And it will have you recalling the days of spending all your spare money on records (if you’re old enough).

It's a short piece and worth a look. Written and directed by Adrian Berry, From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads is at the Waterloo East Theatre until 6 November. It then embarks on a tour that runs through to December.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

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