Last Updated on October 29, 2026
A moving play about the Aberfan disaster
4.0 out of 5.0 starsThe Aberfan disaster is burned into the national conscience. In October 1966, a coal tip collapsed onto the village of Aberfan, South Wales, killing 116 children and 28 adults. A sorry picture of institutional neglect and cover-up has emerged over the years since. In 2019, hit Netflix series The Crown dedicated an episode to the disaster, and the BBC released a documentary on its 50th anniversary.
Sitting in Park Theatre for The Revlon Girl, 140 miles from Aberfan village, the disaster’s deep impression on the audience was obvious before the actors came out. As the roar of falling coal slack filled the auditorium, almost everyone looked upwards. Instinctively, without any direction from the stage, we knew the threat was coming from above.
Neil Anthony Docking’s The Revlon Girl arrived at the Park in 2017 after runs in Wales and Edinburgh. Director Maxime Evans revives that hit production with two of the original cast (Antonia Kinlay as Revlon Girl and Charlotte Gray as Sian) returning to their former roles.
The Revlon Girl follows four mothers whose children have been killed in the disaster. The women have invited a brand ambassador from beauty company Revlon to the attic room of Aberfan’s bar. This is their chance to feel beautiful again.
Docking’s script is sensitive to the potential controversy of this arrangement: there’s danger here in bereaved women being seen to take too much pride in their appearances. The Revlon Girl’s car, a flashy Zodiac, must be moved out back to avoid awkward questions. And the women agree to pretend that their visitor has come from the Women’s Institute to “read poetry”. In this and other ways, the play is fascinated by how social norms box in free expression of female grief.
The Revlon Girl is a hyperlocal play about the biggest themes. It handles class, loss, motherhood and trauma with intelligence and humour. The script works up to excruciating emotional tipping points, like when the women recount their experiences on the day of the disaster. But the script never quite tips into all out despair, de-escalating tension with well-timed punchlines. It is faithful to the bizarre logics of collective grief, where pain and laughter become curiously entangled.
The set – a sparse room with pub furniture – works well to evoke shattered lives. A constant drip from the skylight echoes into a tin bucket; snapped wooden boards and foldout chairs create a sense of impermanence – as if we’ve stumbled into the aftermath of an explosion. Maxime Evans directs her actors like they’re magnets – sometimes repelling, sometimes attracting each other – but always determined to follow their own internal pulls.
The triumph of The Revlon Girl is its approach to each character’s grief like it’s its own particular puzzle. There is no reliance on cliché, no generalisations and no judgment. Returning cast member Charlotte Gray (Under the Influence) gives a stunning portrayal of Sian, the ringleader of the group. She sets the tempo of The Revlon Girl, balancing upright hospitality with profound pain. Gray’s performance lifts the play into the stratosphere. She creates the language between surface talk and emotional depth that the production depends on. Gray’s monologue in the final act brings the audience to audible tears.
Hedydd Dylan (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) also excels as a shy, patently traumatised parent. Antonia Kinley (Bad Jews) is sharp as an out-of-town Southerner. Mirain Haf Roberts (Truth or Dare) provides expertly timed punchlines. And Llinos Daniel (Hamlet) gives a moving performance as a proud, pious mother.
In moments, the script does not live up to the sophistication of Gray’s performance; the trouble with acting brilliance is that it sets the highest standard for all surrounding elements of a play. At points, the Revlon Girl’s questions felt simplistic, and the narrative structure veered towards predictability. But these are minor gripes with a production that left half the audience with wet sleeves.
The Revlon Girl is an unsentimental examination of how a national tragedy moulds the lives of bereaved mothers. It’s an important piece of theatre in the 60th anniversary year of the Aberfan disaster. It will leave you uplifted and devastated in equal measure.
The Revlon Girls runs at Park Theatre from Wednesday 27 October to Saturday 14 November.
Park Theatre
3 Clifton Terrace
Finsbury Park
London N4 3JP
Looking for something different? Check out our review of CADEL: Lungs of Lead at Riverside Studios.
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