Having lost its Arts Council funding, National Theatre Wales folded in 2024. Risen from its ashes, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph, is the new Welsh National Theatre, with the actor Michael Sheen “valiantly serving” as the company’s core funder and artistic director. He also takes the lead in its curtain-raiser – a touching staging of “Our Town”, Thornton Wilder’s 1938 classic about small-town life in America. The text is unchanged, and the design is faithful to the play’s setting – Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, at the turn of the 20th century. But a few Welsh place names have been added, along with Welsh-language hymns. “Beautifully directed by Francesca Goodridge, it’s a potent statement of intent with a spiritual frisson.”
All credit to Sheen. Long a champion of the arts in Wales, the actor, who lives near Port Talbot, has really put “his money where his mouth is”, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. He also turns in a terrific performance: as the Stage Manager (the narrator and guide to Grover’s Corners), “he adds gravitas, wit, a sonorous soulfulness, and makes it all look easy as pie. Acting this good is rare and joyous.” The first two acts are done “pretty well”: jokes land, the balletic choreography enchants, and “whenever teenage lovebirds” Emily Webb (Yasemin Özdemir) and George Gibbs (Peter Devlin) are centre-stage, “it’s intimate and effective”. But it’s in the third and final act – when we discover that the tweeness was just a ruse – that everything comes together.
There were places where I found the evening a bit busy or strident, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times, but “this is still a beautiful production of a great, wise play”. And its message – about the value of community and “seizing hold of what really matters in life” – feels more vital than ever. Sheen will be appearing in the Welsh National Theatre’s next production too, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage – a new play by the “terrific” Gary Owen. “This revival of a slightly sentimental classic shows just what [Sheen] and this new company can achieve” – and it “makes the future look bright”.
Swansea Grand Theatre, until 31 January, then touring
Opening show at the Welsh National Theatre promises a ‘bright’ future
