Michael Sheen launches Welsh National Theatre with a Welsh Our Town

Michael Sheen has launched Welsh National Theatre and will star in a new touring production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town transposed to Wales, opening at the Grand theatre in Swansea. The company was formed and financed by Sheen after the collapse of the former National Theatre Wales.

The venture aims to create large-scale platforms for Welsh talent and to expand the Welsh theatrical canon amid recent cuts to arts organisations in Wales. Francesca Goodridge directs the production; the cast of 18 Welsh actors will perform translated hymns and other adjustments intended to fit a Welsh idiom.

Sheen said he used his own money to help get the company going, the new organisation received some transitional funding formerly allocated to National Theatre Wales, and the opening season is supported by the Colwinston Charitable Trust alongside partnerships with BBC Studios and Bad Wolf.

The company’s opening season begins with Our Town and is followed by Owain & Henry, a new play by Gary Owen starring Sheen as Owain Glyndŵr, then Mark Jenkins’s Playing Burton led by Matthew Rhys. Our Town will tour Wales and finish at the Rose theatre in Kingston; the run at Swansea’s Grand theatre is to 31 January, with performances at Venue Cymru, Llandudno (3–7 February) and Theatr Clwyd, Mold (11–21 February), before transferring to the Rose theatre in Kingston (26 February–28 March).

Key Topics

Culture, Michael Sheen, Welsh National Theatre, Our Town, Francesca Goodridge, Grand Theatre Swansea