A play based on the events surrounding the Aberfan disaster of 1966 will visit The Torch Theatre on Monday.

On October 21, 1966, a tip containing coal waste from the Merthyr Vale colliery slipped and an estimated 40,000 cubic metres of slurry slid down the mountainside and engulfed a farmhouse before demolishing 20 houses and hitting Pantglas Junior School in the village below. The final death toll was 116 children and 28 adults.

The Revlon Girl is an original play and draws on the real life story of a small group of bereaved mothers who met every Tuesday above a local hotel to talk, cry and eventually laugh.

At one of their meetings, the women looked at each other and realised how much they had let themselves go.

Afraid that people would think them frivolous, they secretly arranged for a representative from Revlon to come and give a talk on beauty tips.

Playwright Neil Docking said: "I found the story almost by accident when researching the disaster, and it is a true story by the way - the bereaved mothers really did arrange for a Revlon girl to come and give beauty tips.

"And the event struck me as a perfect way of being able to tell the story of the Aberfan disaster and do so in a way that would avoid sensationalism or insensitivity and yet allow the power of the story to come through – almost by itself.

"I suppose The Revlon Girl is similar in a way to films and plays such as Calendar Girls or Made in Dagenham, which treat the real events as a backdrop and the story is actually about people.”

The Revlon Girl is on at The Torch Theatre on Monday, October 17, at 7.45pm.

To book tickets and for further information, contact the Torch Theatre Box Office on 01646 695267 or visit the website torchtheatre.co.uk