Brave face of Aberfan’s buried grief

In 1966, 116 children and 28 adults were killed in the Welsh village of Aberfan after a colliery landslide buried the primary school in a disaster that became headline news worldwide.

Set eight months later in a room in the Aberfan Hotel, neil Anthony Docking’s Revlon Girl, directed by Maxine Evans, focuses on a group of bereaved mothers who secretly invite a rep from the cosmetics company along to their weekly meeting to give them beauty tips.

Based on a true story, it’s powerful, poignant, tear-jerking stuff as we sympathise with the women’s worry about appearing frivolous.

‘If anyone asks you, you’re from the WI and you’re giving us a talk on poetry,’ they tell the blonde glamour puss with the fancy car who has parachuted into the village – while empathising with their desire to put on a different face other than a brave one for a change.

As toners, moisturisers, and lipsticks are produced from the Revlon rep’s bag under a leaking skylight, the four mothers’ grief and grievances come flooding out in a piece full of light and shade, whose comic moments only highlight the deathly pall that has settled over all their lives.

Each of them coping (or not coping) in their own way, the emotional pull on display is nothing short of heartbreaking. As they all grew up in the school, the disaster’s aftermath threatens to bury them every bit as much as it did their lost children.

It’s the spectrum of grief on show here that marks the piece out. Jean (Zoe Harrison) is pregnant, but refuses to talk about it.

Marilyn (Michelle McTernan) has turned to mediums to seek comfort.

Bethan Thomas as Rona hides behind her bluster and loud mouth, scattering accusations at the all-male Disaster Fund Committee and the Coal Board in equal measure.

Sian’s desperate desire to appear beautiful for a husband who has shut her out (sensitively handled by Charlotte Gray at the finale) sends shockwaves through the system.

The all-female cast turn in strong performances – though Antonia Kinlay is less striking and seems to have drawn the short straw as ‘Revlon’, in an undercooked part.

But it is given heft by a confessional revelation of her own – though even that lacks the ring of authenticity running through the rest of the proceedings.

This is a moving piece, sure to tug at the heartstrings of anyone who sees it.

Assembly Roxy until Aug 28