REVIEW - When I heard that Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s summer show was Operation Julie, a musical based on the 1970s police investigation, I was sceptical and somewhat disappointed.

I love the arts centre, mid Wales and musicals, but one about this investigation sounded like somebody, somewhere, had discovered some long-buried drug and taken a ton of it...

With a strict over 16s policy (14+ with parental consent), I was sad that young families, including my own, would be excluded from the venue’s traditionally family-friendly slot, and it was with some trepidation that I took my seat on Monday, 1 August for a performance followed by a Q&A.

I’ll be honest, I prepared myself for disappointment, but what followed was a fantastic night of theatre that I won’t forget in a hurry. This prog rock play with songs - I think that’s fair as the piece is told through covers rather than an original score – is, in my humble opinion, pretty groovy.

The production values are high. The psychedelic set, lighting and sound are superb. The costumes are great, in keeping with the era and, along with the atmospheric and appropriate cover tracks performed by the actor musicians, transport us back in time.

Finally, the smoke-filled bubbles deserve a mention and have to be seen to be believed.

All of the effects and their assault on my senses made me feel like I was in the middle of a lava lamp, experiencing the high and lows of the people at the heart of this true story.

Richard Kemp and Christine Bott (played by Joseph Tweedale and Georgina White) are the show’s main characters, and we see why they believed it was so important to risk their lives to spread LSD throughout the world.

The scenes between the two are quiet and naturalistic, in contrast with some of the police scenes which, I feel, are a bit over the top at times, and made them look a bit bumbling.

Despite that, we see the police close in on Kemp, Bott and some well-known local characters.

At the Q&A afterwards, it transpired that Alston ‘Smiles’ Hughes himself, (played by Steffan Rizzi) and the family of Buzz (played by Daniel Carter-Hope) were in the audience. When asked what it was like to see someone playing his younger self, ‘Smiles’ said it was “kind of weird”. I bet it was.

Rizzi, Carter-Hope and all the cast do a fantastic job. Most of them play multiple parts and multiple instruments, and take us on a journey through time and rural mid Wales, when hippies settled to spread their message of peace and love.

The show’s climax is hard-hitting, with Kemp’s micro-doctrine delivered with great passion in front of a screen showing news clips from today of wild fires, flooding, Boris Johnson and more. And there is an incredible plug for the Cambrian News, accompanied (on the night I saw the show) by a heartening cheer from the audience when it was announced that it was the only newspaper to print Kemp’s micro-doctrine.

If I could change one thing about the show, it would be this. I would lose the song at the end to retain the power of the micro-doctrine and its incredible message, so frighteningly on point today. It is a warning to us all to change our ways to protect the planet and the people on it.

Operation Julie is great, grown-up fun with a serious message for these turbulent times to wake up and do something about the state of the world, before it’s too late. I’m not sure taking LSD is the way to go, but Kemp was right when he said we are living on the world’s capital rather than its income...

Review by Julie McNicholls Vale