A £15,000 crowdfunding appeal for a new opera about one of the most dramatic chapters in Welsh history has won backing from two high-profile figures.

Former Plaid Cymru president Dafydd Wigley and internationally acclaimed harpist Elinor Bennett support the campaign to stage ‘Fflamau Penyberth’, marking the 90th anniversary of the controversial 1936 arson attack at an RAF base near Pwllheli.

The story began when Plaid Cymru members Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and DJ Williams set fire to buildings at RAF Penrhos.

They drove to Pwllheli police station to give themselves up and were sentenced to nine months in prison at the Old Bailey.

Now their actions are being brought to the stage by OPRA Cymru in a Welsh language production composed by Machynlleth-born Gareth Glyn.

The libretto has been written by opera company founder Patrick Young, from Llan Ffestiniog, with help from collaborator Arwel Vittle, an author and historian from Caernarfon.

Organisers say they need public support to raise the final £15,000 to bring the ambitious production to the stage.

‘Fflamau Penyberth’ will receive its world premiere at Neuadd Dwyfor in Pwllheli on 19 November before touring Wales.

Elinor Bennett fully supports the appeal.

"This is a worthwhile cause. It is an event I first heard about from my father who was at Caernarfon to welcome the three men after their release from prison.

“My father was very passionate about the incident recognising they had committed a criminal act but believed it to significant and far-reaching.

"Gareth Glyn is a wonderful composer and has written some fantastic works in the past.”

Her husband Dafydd Wigley also supports the appeal.

"The arson attack was largely symbolic, they set fire to a hut which caused minimal damage, but it was very significant nonetheless,” he said.

"It was disgraceful that no consideration was given to local protests about establishing the RAF base at Penyberth. Three other sites, all in England, had been put forward for the bombing school but they were discounted after objections were put forward.

"Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and David John Williams were greeted by a huge crowd of 15,000 on their return to Caernarfon and underlined the anti-war attitude of Welsh people.

"There have been other instances of Welsh objection being over-ruled, Tryweryn for instance and Fflamau Penyberth serves to remind people of what has occurred in Wales," he said. 

‘Fflamau Penyberth’ will cost around £170,000 to produce and there is a shortfall of around £15,000 which is why this crowdfunding appeal has been set up.

Penyberth farmhouse, home to generations of patrons of poets and a way-station for pilgrims to Bardsey Island, was destroyed in 1936 in order to build the RAF base.

The proposals led to widespread protests in Wales but the government settled on Llŷn after locations in Northumberland and Dorset were met with protests.

Saunders Lewis claimed the government was intent on turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting what Lewis viewed as a barbaric method of warfare.