SWANSEA BLITZ: Sold-out play takes 5,000 children from the stage to the city’s real gas masks

More than 5,000 schoolchildren are about to see the Swansea Blitz through the eyes of a girl who was promised “nobody is going to bomb Swansea”, and every school performance is already sold out.

It’ll All Be Over by Christmas, from Neath’s Theatr na nÓg, opens at the Dylan Thomas Theatre this week, running in English through the autumn and in Welsh, as Ac Abertawe’n Fflam, in November.

It tells the story of Rosie Birch, a young girl evacuated from Liverpool to Swansea at the outbreak of the Second World War, arriving in a city that would soon face the bombs itself.

Through Rosie’s eyes, audiences from Year 5 upwards experience evacuation, blackouts, rationing, air raids and the bombing of Swansea.

What lifts the production beyond the stage is a partnership with the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea Museum and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, where pupils who have seen the show can get their hands on the real thing.

From the stalls to the real gas masks

At the Waterfront Museum, pupils are transported to February 1941 as enemy bombers head for Swansea, exploring the science and technology developed to defend Britain.

At Swansea Museum, they unpack Rosie’s suitcase: why children were evacuated, what they carried with them, the difference between an evacuee and a refugee, and the gas masks and air raid stories of south Wales.

At the Glynn Vivian, pupils explore how local artist Will Evans recorded Swansea before and after the Three Nights’ Blitz, before creating work of their own.

Geinor Styles, artistic director of Theatr na nÓg, said: “Theatre can be a wonderful starting point for children to discover the real stories of the places and communities around them. It’ll All Be Over by Christmas introduces wartime Wales, but we want young audiences to go further than simply watching the play.

“It helps them understand that these events happened here, to ordinary people and families, and that these are stories which are still relevant to us today.”

The Welsh Government’s culture minister, Heledd Fychan MS, said: “I am impressed by the way Theatr na nÓg goes beyond introducing children and young people to live theatre. It’ll All Be Over by Christmas is a great example of this approach, bringing an important period in Swansea and Wales’ history to life.”

Amy Smith, deputy head at Blaenymaes Primary School, said: “Seeing a story performed brings history to life for children in a way that is very different from learning about it in the classroom. It encourages questions and conversations, and helps pupils make connections between the story on stage and the history of Swansea and Wales.”

The same role, 29 years apart

The cast features Erin Dolan, returning to the company after playing Emmie Price in last year’s Eye of the Storm, alongside Ryan Owen as Billy. Clêr Stephens returns as Aunty Betty, a role she first played in a previous staging of the production in 1997.

The autumn run caps a strong year for the company, which marked 40 years of making theatre from its Neath home in 2024 and landed £100,000 from the ScottishPower Foundation in March to tour its bilingual climate shows.

School performances are sold out, but public performances remain: in English on 16, 23, 24 and 30 September and 7, 14, 15 and 21 October, and in Welsh on 4, 11 and 12 November, recommended for ages nine and up, with booking via the Theatr na nÓg website.

Every school performance ends with a cast Q&A, museum workshops at the Waterfront and Swansea Museum are free for primary schools attending (Glynn Vivian workshops carry a charge), and the company offers touch tours, audio described and BSL interpreted performances by arrangement.