Review: THE REVLON GIRL at Park Theatre

It’s the late 1960s and a group of Welsh mothers meet every Tuesday at a disused function room above a hotel. With its leaking skylight and bare floorboards, it is as far from ‘glamour’ as one could imagine, yet this evening will be different.

The women all lost children in the horrific Aberfan Disaster when a slag tip slid down the side of a mountain and enveloped an entire school. The incident which claimed the lives of 144 people (including 116 7-10 year olds at Pantglas Junior School) has been etched into the Welsh consciousness, and not simply because of the loss of innocent life. The cruelty and callousness with which the victims were treated by the National Coal Board, Westminster government and the hordes of curious, but disrespectful tourists and journalists who descended upon the area in the aftermath, compounded an already appalling situation.

Much has been written of what occurred, but Docking’s play isn’t a tedious moralistic crusade. Instead, he taps into the lives of four women who have been forever damaged and changed by the cataclysmic events of that day. Scrambling for a bit of relief from the drudgery of survivor’s guilt, heartbreak and futile hope, the women have organised for THE REVLON GIRL to come and offer beauty tips and with her, a glimmer of brief respite from the sadness and anger which enveloped them one autumn morning and changed their lives forever.

The shock of the play, is its warmth, humour and gentle humanity. The community feel and mistrust of outsiders, the private revelations and collective trauma are all here, generously delivered by a wonderful cast. When the pent-up anger surfaces, it is caustic and explosive yet wholly relatable, and I challenge anyone to control their tear ducts when Sian (Charlotte Gray) talks of her husband not touching her since the tragedy and hoping a touch of lipstick and eyeshadow will make him notice her.

As THE REVLON GIRL of the title Antonia Kinlay facilitates and looks graceful yet seems out of her depth until we understand why she deliberately chose to volunteer to host the session. The women of the group bicker over the rights and wrongs of committees formed to decide what to do with various donated funds, while others confess to seeing clairvoyants and even plans to abandon the strained community altogether to start afresh. They are pregnant Jean (Llinos Daniel), strident Rona (Mirain Haf Roberts) and fragile Maralyn (Hedydd Dylan) who each deliver personality and oodles of realness to proceedings in director Maxine Evans’ sensitive, raucous and uplifting production.

THE REVLON GIRL runs 90mins straight through without interval and will make you laugh and reach for a tissue mere moments apart.