Fringe review: MR JONES, Greenside @ George Street

If there is one play you must see this Fringe, it’s Mr Jones at the Greenside @ George Street and if you can't get to Edinburgh, you should help Wilmas Productions in bringing this tale to a wider audience in 2026.

It will be the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster in the Welsh Valleys and a story that horrified the world and brought attention to this small community when 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a mining slag heap slipped in the rain and engulfed a school.

Like Boiler Room 6 which we saw earlier this Fringe, this play brings powerful, emotional stories back into our consciousness. Both the impact on survivors and their families was massive for years to come and those affected did not talk about the disaster for years.

Liam Holmes, fresh from Guildford School Of Acting, has written the play, performed in a shortened one-hour version at the Fringe and plays Stephen Jones opposite Mabli Gwynne as Angharad, a slightly older local nurse. She has acted as mother to his younger brother David since his Mum died.

The writing is simply superb, full of emotion and power, yet feeling true and real as their relationship is revealed and developed. Director Michael Neri gets the pacing exactly right, using pauses to allow us to feel and see their emotions despite cutting the running time in half for the Fringe. It is nearly halfway through before we hear the slag heap slip and they finally mention Aberfan. The verbatim voiceovers connect us to the real people in the story.

Yet what really stirs the emotions is the phenomenal acting by these two young people. It is totally believable in their affection, elation at Rugby success, and torment and anger in the aftermath. You can't fail to be emotionally engaged by the performances and moved by their relationship together and with his seen Father and Brother.

In thirty shows at the Fringe this year, we have seen nothing with this power and if we could give it six stars, we would, as it stands heads and shoulders above the rest. Discovering performers like this is what the Fringe is about and this is a story that needs telling on its 60th anniversary.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

Mr Jones plays at Edinburgh Festival Fringe until 23 August, with further info here.