News

Rhondda ripped it up!

14 June 2018

We well and truly ripped up the rulebook as we started our Summer Season…

Rhondda and friends appear passionate, reaching out and pointing to the audience.

The summer is here and we have started the Season with our rip roaring new production Rhondda Rips It Up! which premiered on 7 June and has now begun its tour around England and Wales. This thigh-slapping comedy crosses multiple genres, from music hall to cabaret, as it transports audiences back a 100 years to a time when women had to fight for their right to vote. Rhondda Rips It Up! follows the life and times of the real-life Newport suffragette, Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda) who we think would have loved our salute to her and we’re sure she’d have been waving her suffragette flag along with the rest of us.

Here are a few highlights from the opening night which, very fittingly was held in Newport, with all sorts of activity during the day and night leading up to the world premiere. 



I defy anyone not to be swept away by this rule-breaking production. It’s bursting with irreverent joy.

The Times


…Welsh National Opera has got itself a hit.

Theatre In Wales


This is just a selection of the fantastic feedback we have received from the audience who had a rip-roaring time on the evening, from the pre-show performance by the women of our Community Chorus South, and a Come & Sing with the audience in the foyer, to the fabulous finale of our entertaining production.

If you missed out on our premiere in Newport don’t worry, Rhondda Rips It Up! is touring across Wales and England this Summer and Autumn. Head to our event page for all tour dates and venues.