The Garrick exploring heart-breaking impact of the 1966 Aberfan Disaster with powerful play

Rescue workers searching for victims of the Aberfan Disaster of 1966, which killed 144 people, including 116 children.

Auditions will be held next month for The Revlon Girl, which tells the real-life story of a group of bereaved mothers who met every week to talk, cry and even laugh without feeling guilty.

Neil Anthony Docking’s poignant yet uplifting play is set eight months after the national mining tragedy that drowned or crushed to death 144 people, including 116 children, in coal slurry in the small Welsh village of Aberfan.

For years, a mountain of excavated mining debris and waste material from the Merthyr Vale Colliery loomed above the village - despite there being numerous underground springs below.

At 9-15am on Friday, October 21st, 1966, 20ft of material from Tip Number Seven became dislodged and thundered down the hillside, killing most of the pupils at Pantglas Junior School.

Director Maureen Roberts is looking to assemble a cast of six women able to play late twenties to early thirties.

A reading/audition will be held at The Garrick rehearsal rooms in the old Haggate school in Harle Syke, Burnley, on Thursday, July 18th at 7-30pm.

Anyone wishing to audition should contact Alan Hargreaves on 07725 335306 or [email protected]