'Frost at the Westgate' is a play which tells the story of the events, both political and personal, which led to the Gwent Uprising and the massacre at the Westgate Hotel, Newport of marchers in the cause of Chartism, by soldiers defending what they believed was a city under attack.  The play centres around four of the main protagonists in these momentous events:  Thomas Prothero - one time Mayor of Newport and a sworn enemy of John Frost; Sir Charles Morgan - landowner, iron and coal magnate, owner of Tredegar Park; Thomas Phillips, assistant to Prothero and later to become one of Newport's most successful and radical Mayors and John Frost himself - leader of the Chartists who was to take the blame for the events at the Westgate and to spend eighteen years in exile as his reward.

The play tells of the relationships between these power brokers of Newport over a fifteen year period, exploring the enmities, the friendships and the beliefs which lay behind the historical facts and the political machinations.  It was a time of overwhelming poverty and exploitation for most of the people of South Wales - John Frost and his friends sought to ease that poverty and bring political and social change.