A theatre collaboration between Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Theatr na nÓg has left the Theatr y Werin and moved south to Brecon.

Operation Julie, the surprise hit show based upon the drug bust of the same name, will open at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon next Wedensday, 24 August. The theatre will host the show for three performances over three consecutive nights - 24, 25 and 26 August - before moving to the Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen. Performances there take place on Wednesday 31 August and Thursday and Friday, 1 and 2 September.

The brand-new musical play from Theatr na nÓg and Aberystwyth Arts Centre explores the story from both sides of the drugs divide – the police, and the hippies who settled in Ceredigion hoping to spread their ideals in a changing world.

Operation Julie is a musical play packed with songs, drama and comedy, telling the extraordinary story of what happened in and around west Wales in the mid-1970s when hippies settled in the area seeking a new way of living fuelled by acid and an alternative attitude.

When a chance clue is discovered following a car accident, the local constabulary work with detectives from across Britain to uncover what turned out to be the biggest stash of acid ever found, taking out up to 60 per cent of the world’s LSD market at that time.

Among the main protagonists are Richard Kemp and Christine Bott, a couple living near Tregaron who find a way of making the purest LSD the world had ever known, and roguish dealer, Smiles, based in Llanddewi Brefi.

Geinor Styles, writer and director of the show, met and interviewed a variety of people from that time, including one of the main acid dealers, Alston ‘Smiles’ Hughes – who was a key part of the LSD chain from his modest home in Llanddewi Brefi – and Anne Parry, the wife of the late Detective Sergeant Richie Parry.