Entertainment

Sheen to fund new national theatre for Wales

BBC

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen is funding a new theatre company to fill the gap left by the folding of National Theatre Wales.

He will be the artistic director of Welsh National Theatre, which will aim to tell “big stories on big stages for big audiences”.

The first production, due in autumn 2026 and starring Sheen himself, will be announced in the coming months.

National Theatre Wales said it had “ceased to exist” last month after £1.6m in cuts to its core funding from Arts Council Wales.

Sheen said he was putting “everything behind” the venture, which would have “Welsh theatre makers, Welsh stories and Welsh actors” at the heart of the company.

The company is seeking private and public funding, but Sheen said self-financing it initially would allow it to stand “on its own two feet”.

“I want it to be something that represents the rich culture that we are and always have been in this country,” he said.

“We want to please ourselves but thrill the world. I want to be able to tell big stories on big stages for big audiences.”

Sheen said the news National Theatre Wales was likely to fold was “incredibly sad, but not a surprise” and prompted him to take action.

“[I realised] if we don’t find a way to reimagine the way forward, it may be a long time – if ever – that we have the opportunity to have a national theatre in Wales again.”

Sheen’s announcement comes a day after the Senedd Sports and Culture Committee published a report showing Wales is close to the bottom of Europe when it comes to public spending.

The actor said Welsh National Theatre was open to working with other theatre makers and had already been in touch with Theatr Cymru, formerly Theatr Genedlaethol, about the possibility of collaborating.

Sheen said he was inspired to dream big after the runaway success of Nye, where he played NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.

It was written by Welsh playwright Tim Price and co-produced by the National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre.

“Welsh writers and Welsh theatre makers have to be at the forefront of this. And our Welsh stories have to be the heart of it,” he said.

“I think if you put that on with ambition and audacity, with creativity and innovation, then people will respond to it.”

He said his role as the teacher in National Theatre Wales’s first – and best known – production The Passion, back in 2011, was a formative experience.

BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

Like that production, he wants Welsh National Theatre plays to bring in non-traditional theatre audiences, citing Gavin and Stacey as another inspiration.

“You know, we just seen over Christmas, Gavin and Stacey getting massive figures. That’s because that’s reflecting our life, what we recognise, and not only that, but offering us something positive and hopeful, and people will respond to that.

“There’s no reason why you can’t do that through practical plays and some of the most wonderful pieces of literature. But it doesn’t have to be just that.

“I think that’s why I’m throwing everything at this. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”

Last month, the Welsh government increased the culture sector’s funding in its draft budget for 2025-2026 and, together with Arts Council Wales, provided a £3.6m jobs fund for the sector.

Dafydd Rhys, chief executive of Arts Council of Wales said it had provided National Theatre Wales with both transition and resilience funding to support it to reimagine and restructure its operations.

He added: “It is exciting that the organisation is now able to move into this new phase at the beginning of a new year, and we look forward to seeing how both Team Collective Cymru and Welsh National Theatre develop their new creative programmes.”

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