You couldn't make it up with lipstick replacing grief in this production at the Lace Market Theatre....
The loss of someone close, or a job, or a part of your body part or bodily function will result in the technical defining moments of what is known collectively as grief. They say that one goes through five stages of grief, sometimes seven. Some people can find themselves in denial, or mentally depressed, whilst others find their way through their guilt or their pain. This was the main premise of The Revlon Girl who visited the village of Aberfan in Wales on an October rainy evening in 1966. Grief inevitably begins with shock, but I was delighted to meet a full house on this early October night, to absorb the stories following the historical event.
The play, a five-hander with a strong cast, and directed by Sharon Philips, is set in a room above a hotel where the drip, drip, drip of rainwater from the roof meets the audience who are placed in a U-shape around the studio space, which coincidentally was also located upstairs of the 1940’s (The) Lace Market Theatre. My first visit to this theatre was met with a warm welcome by the front of house team and ushers which mirrored the start of the play where Sian [Charlotte Carter] enters to set up the space where a special women’s group meet, and begins to address this by clearing the growing puddle. She eventually uses a mop bucket to collect the water and I am drawn to the bucket in the centre of the stage and who might actually or metaphorically kick it.
I call this a special women’s group because there is a connection to how we label ourselves these days which in turn changes how people are seen but also how they perceive themselves. I have only recently become acquainted with this story otherwise known as the Aberfan disaster and I am full of wonder. On the 21st of October in 1966 the waste material, deposited from coal mines onto a nearby mountain top, collapsed. The material, also known as the spoil tip, slid down the mountain gathering speed, like an avalanche, and engulfed the junior school and some homes at the bottom. In total 144 people were killed. 116 of them were children.
Four of the women in the room had lost children and in their grief had lost their identity. It was so telling to watch the stages of grief depicted through the anger and dry humour of Rona [Mollie Kneeshaw], the denial and anxious bargaining Marilyn [Natalie Webster] exhibits as she grabs at evidence of signs and omens. Jean [Lucie Conroy] is married to the local minister and carries herself with the energy of someone who is the town leader that sits on committees to discuss what needs to happen for the next 8 months after the disaster.
as bereaved mothers who may never conclude their grieving process
The set was a simple one with folding chairs set up by the characters so that the Revlon girl, referred to mainly as Revlon [Chloe Davie], who travelled across from Bristol could arrive and set up her small table and suitcases full of make-up to perform a demonstration for the women. Folded up props leaned into the temporary reprieve from dreariness the women were guiltily seeking in community and colour with the latest make-up shades and techniques.
The Revlon girl was a bright contrast to the four women bringing an affluent working class-dom that the women had never seen before. And still the water continued to drip into the bucket, and we see and hear the rhythm of the sound effects [Matt Allcock] that pushes each character's story through to share two or more sides to their masks: as bereaved mothers who may never conclude their grieving process; as women who want to be desired by their partners; as women who are lost in the multiverse of trying to keep calm and carry on; or as Rona who is planning to leave Aberfan imminently and move to Nottingham for a new life.
The play is filled with the historical context and controversy that you will find on the UK Government website and digital documentary Youtube clips including the visit by the Queen a week after the disaster and the handling of the alleged culpability of the National Coal Board. There is also reference to forming a male voice choir as a way to bring the men in the village together, plus the pre-show music featured various Welsh voice choirs.
Before the end of the play the dripping of water stopped, but I cannot pinpoint the exact moment amongst all of the loud and soft revelations of grief. After the applause, the lights go up again for a small outro, or sort of ‘postlude’ as opposed to a prelude. This was not the lipstick of a production I was expecting with this special women’s group meeting. The short end, or where the play concludes, brought some lightness to what will forever be a piece to reflect on, to wonder about on my way to acceptance, the final stage of grief.
The Revlon Girl plays at the Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 11 October 2025.
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