Artistic director Michael Sheen has announced this week the debut season of the Welsh National Theatre with two productions in which he’ll star: Owain and Henry and Our Town. You will find below a funny promotional video:
Our debut season @WelshNatTheatre
— michael sheen 💙 (@michaelsheen) April 2, 2025
From Wales to the world.
2026.https://t.co/NJA2aTZ6c4 pic.twitter.com/snz1EvW8ZC
Here’s a behind-the-scenes video for Our Town photoshoot:
And on our gallery you find posters for both plays and a photoshoot for Our Town:
More details on the new plays:
Michael Sheen will lead Our Town next year.
The piece was revealed as part of Welsh National Theatre’s debut season, which you can read about here.
Sheen established the company earlier this year and also serves as artistic director. His vision is to create world-class work from Wales and take it to the world, “bringing together Welsh talent to create ambitious theatre which makes the country’s story come alive.”
As part of the programming, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town will be reimagined in an intimate Welsh setting. Sheen will star as Stage Manager under the direction of Swansea-born Francesca Goodridge.
Russell T Davies will serve as creative associate and Pádraig Cusack as executive producer.
Sheen recalled working on stage with Davies with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company in the 1980s. He said: “Since then, Russell has become one of the greatest writers our nation has ever produced. It feels apt to come together again, 40 years later, on the first Welsh National Theatre production.”
Continuing: “The pathway laid down for us by the Youth Theatre’s founder Godfrey Evans is something we’re aspiring to recreate with this company and that’s why it’s a privilege to have Welsh, working class director Francesca Goodridge at the helm of this show.”
Goodridge added: “Relocating Our Town to Wales is a perfect match because at its heart, the play celebrates community and explores the close-knit nature of small-town life that we all recognise as it journeys through life, love and death.
“‘Hiraeth’ is a Welsh word without a perfect English translation, but it describes a kind of longing for a place, person or time that you can’t get back to. A feeling we all know but can’t put into words. Our Town brings this feeling to life by showing us, even in the most uneventful days, how precious life is and forces us to live in the present.”
The director concluded: “Now more than ever the world is an uncertain and often scary place. Our Town reminds us of the little things that make life meaningful – it’s a wake-up call for all of us to think more deeply about our lives as we are living them, not after it is too late. I feel privileged to be directing the Welsh National Theatre’s inaugural production alongside The Rose Theatre and am thrilled to be retelling this world-renowned classic through a Welsh lens.”
The production will open at the Swansea Grand Theatre (Friday 16 to Saturday 31 January 2026), before visiting Venue Cymru in Llandudno (Tuesday 3 February to Saturday 7 February 2026), Theatr Clwyd in Mold (Wednesday 11 February to Saturday 21 February 2026) and the Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames (Thursday 26 February to 28 March 2026).
Tickets for the London run will go on sale today, with all three Welsh venues on sale later this month.
Further casting and creative team are to be revealed.
Michael Sheen will lead a new play by Gary Owen.
Examining the 15th-century rebellion against the English crown by outlaw Owain Glyndŵr, Sheen will star as the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales, coming up against King Henry IV in a battle that could lead to freedom for Wales and the end of England.
The piece was revealed as part of Welsh National Theatre’s first season.
Sheen established the company earlier this year and serves as artistic director. His vision is to create world-class work from Wales and take it to the world, “bringing together Welsh talent to create ambitious theatre which makes the country’s story come alive.”
Owain and Henry is a Welsh National Theatre co-production with Wales Millennium Centre. It’ll run in the Donald Gordon Theatre, which is the second-largest stage in Europe, in November 2026. Pádraig Cusack is executive producer. Tickets will be available from 4 August 2025 for WMC Members and to the general public on 8 August 2025.
Sheen commented: “Owain and Henry is one of the origin stories of our nation, as relevant in today’s complex world as it was when Glyndŵr declared Wales an independent nation six hundred years ago. Gary Owen’s play is one of the most ambitious Welsh plays I’ve read; and is the biggest and boldest of Gary’s career. That’s the creative benchmark and ambition we want to set with Welsh National Theatre.
On leading the piece, he added: “Playing the iconic Welsh prince on one of Europe’s biggest stages in our capital city will, I hope, be a defining moment for us as a people, and a culture. This is what Welsh National Theatre is all about.”
The playwright commented: “I knew that to tell Owain’s story on stage would mean a epic show, at huge scale,” continuing, “I’d tried writing smaller versions of the story and they didn’t work. They didn’t give you a sense of what was at stake. Owain’s play, like Owain’s struggle, would have to be all or nothing.”
The production, alongside a new revival of Our Town, is announced as Arts Council of Wales confirms transition funding to help the new theatre develop its structures and vision.
Owen concluded: “Huge plays cost money, so they’re a huge risk for producers – that’s why we hardly ever do them in Wales. We don’t dare. Until one day, Michael emailed me. And told me he that he dared. And so here we are, presenting this huge story on the epic stage of the WMC. All or nothing.”