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Midnight at the Pera Palace S02E02 - #19

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Michael Sheen argues against calls to make Welsh National Theatre bilingual

Michael Sheen has responded to calls for his new Welsh National Theatre to make bilingual work, claiming work would "inevitably" be biased towards English productions and leave the Welsh language sidelined. 

The actor and artistic director contended that calls for his new company to make work in Welsh as well as English "appear to be a pro-Welsh language argument" but would actually amount to an "anti-Welsh language argument". 

Instead, he doubled down on his commitment to staging English-language plays, a focus he said would protect "flourishing" Welsh-language work elsewhere in the country. 

Sheen first billed his new Welsh National Theatre in January as a platform for Welsh plays in English, separate from but complementary to national Welsh-language company Theatr Cymru.

A strong feeling has since surfaced in the Welsh theatre sector that a revived national theatre should be a bilingual organisation. 

Contributors to a landmark Arts Council of Wales review suggested it would be more cohesive and "exciting", giving larger audiences access to work in Welsh without harming Theatr Cymru’s output.

But Sheen was adamant that his company should not expand its reach to tackle Welsh work, arguing that to do so would result in an institution that was biased towards one language over another, despite claiming to be nationally representative.

Speaking to The Stage as he unveiled his company’s first wave of work, Sheen recalled a conversation with Theatr Cymru’s artistic director Steffan Donnelly around the time of his Welsh National Theatre’s conception.

"I asked [Donnelly]: ‘Do you think there should be an English-language and a Welsh-language national theatre – or do you think we should be a bilingual company?’

"[Donnelly] made a very compelling case that the Welsh language has to be protected.

"If there was a bilingual national theatre company, the worry among the Welsh-language community is that it would be the Welsh-language side of things that would be diminished, that it would inevitably start to become biased towards the English language because there’s just more people," he said.

He added: "The whole point of having a Welsh-language national theatre is to protect that space and it’s been successful and flourishing and really appreciated by audiences."

Referring to the sector’s calls for a bilingual national theatre, Sheen continued: "What appears to be a pro-Welsh language argument is actually an anti-Welsh language argument, because the reality is that the Welsh language would become the minority."

Theatres across Wales have historically faced criticism for programming skewed towards English-language work and underserving Welsh talent, with Arts Council of Wales acknowledging it as a persisting challenge. 

Sheen continued that his English-language work would run alongside Theatr Cymru’s Welsh-language output, allowing it to thrive – and together the two theatres’ work would amount to a bilingual offering. 

Teasing future collaborations, he said: "We’ve had some really exciting conversations about that but I’m really looking forward to it. And [our choice to be separate] protects the Welsh-language work that is going on that is so brilliant." 

Sheen was also keen to emphasise that while his own celebrity and financial heft had got the project off the ground, he was "not doing it by himself" – artistically or commercially – and was hungry for partnerships. 

"I saw a gap and I could see that I can fill that gap to begin with, but the whole point is to get people to collaborate. 

"The only way that this is going to work is if we have a sustainable model and if we have multiple buy-ins from public funders, from the commercial sector and from individual philanthropy, but also from the public," he said.

As well as unveiling his company’s first two productions, a Welsh reimagining of Our Town and a new history play by Gary Owen in which a Welsh prince rebels against English rule, Sheen also revealed that Arts Council of Wales had confirmed the Welsh National Theatre’s first external financing.

But founding chief executive Sharon Gilburd told attendees of the season launch that the council’s transition funding only represented about 10% of what the company needed for its first year of work – enough to get it "up and running" as well as pay those involved so far. 

"The funding situation is challenging. We have got this far with goodwill and generosity – late nights and early mornings," Gilburd said.

Gilburd continued: "Our continued focus in this next stage is on developing relationships with public sector organisations, the private sector and philanthropists [and turning that] into solid support."

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Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru 2024 10/08/2024 - #5

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Quantum Leap, ‘M.I.A.’ S02E22 #9

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Launch of Welsh National Theatre in Cardiff, 02/04/2025

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Michael Sheen says 'I'm not getting paid for this' as he launches most ambitious project yet

Fair play to Michael Sheen, he doesn't half set himself some challenges. After a decades-long career in Hollywood and British films and TV the 56-year-old Port Talbot raised star has embarked on his latest project - resurrecting Wales' national theatre company .

The RADA alumni clearly gets a huge buzz from creating, collaborating and acting with likeminded people. And his launch of the Welsh National Theatre this week is his most recent chapter in a series of projects intended to uplift and assist both the Welsh culture and people.

Since becoming a 'not for profit' actor on the back of selling his house in the US and the UK to bankroll the 2019 Homeless World Cup, held in Cardiff, he's fronted a Channel 4 documentary in which he used £100,000 of his own money to write off £1m worth of debts for a group of people in south Wales. This follows his 2017 move of setting up the End High Cost Credit Alliance to help people find more affordable ways of borrowing money. This year he's also launching book A Home For Spark The Dragon which he co-wrote and will help to raise funds for homelessness charity, Shelter, when it is released on June 5.

Now he, and a group of creative talent from across Wales have focused the spotlight on theatre in Wales after the Arts Council of Wales pulled all the funding for National Theatre Wales, which officially came to an end in December of last year.

Describing the launch of the Welsh National Theatre as a "new dawn for theatre in Wales" he, as its artistic director, also reflects on what a "huge loss" it would be to never have a national theatre in Wales again, or at least for a long time. It came to a head and the inspiration train was boarded at the rehearsals for Nye - the critically accclaimed original play about Aneurin Bevan and the creation of the NHS Sheen lead for the National Theatre (UK-wide) and Wales Millennium Centre last year.

Sheen told WalesOnline: "I was in a rehearsal room with a bunch of Welsh actors talking inevitably about how it looked like we had lost our National Theatre in Wales. There was a lot of talk of why that might have happened, the rights and wrongs of it and what went wrong - and all that kind of stuff.

"But ultimately, we were faced with the possibility of not having a National Theatre in Wales. It was such a tortuous process for us to get to that point that we started with in the first place. There was a real fear that maybe that would be it. That we would never have one again or it would take a very long time for that to happen."

He adds that it would be a huge loss to Wales if the country, famous for its performative heritage of the Mabinogion, Hedd Wyn, RS Thomas, Richard Burton and everything we have poured into 100s of years of culture, lost its country-wide outlet for theatre, acting, writing and directing - but he never had a plan to dive in - until he did.

"Even though it was not in any way something that I was planning to do, at a certain point in talking about it, I realised - 'well, if I don’t step up, how do I expect anyone else to?' he added, going onto speak about the challenges and how he's not getting any salary gain from the project. "The circumstances were so challenging I think - that it needed someone who had their own resources, brought certain qualities to the role that would allow it to happen. I’m not getting paid, I am able to collaborate and partner up with various organisations because of my work as an actor and my profile, I can get certain doors to open, I can get people on board - it felt like that’s what it sort of what people needed, otherwise it was going to be impossible.

"I think there was a window of time before the opportunity would dry up. That’s the why now. What made me take it on is ultimately, I heard myself arguing for what it should be and I was talking about something that only really me could do at this moment of time."

Writers Gary Owen, Russell T Davies and Time Price, directors Francesca Goodridge and CEO Sharon Gilburd, are already involved and the WNT will be building a network of talent scouts, too, who will be keeping an eye on youth, amateur and professional theatre productions. Dubbed "The Welsh Net" it's a play on the term "Welsh Not" which stifled Welsh expression and language - but the Welsh Net will champion new talent, voices and creativity.

"Part of the success of any organisation, I think, is collaboration and allowing people to take on responsibility and to grow and thrive in those situations as well as having a very strong vision at the heart of it. I hope I’m establishing certain kinds of values and beliefs and a way of looking at things and aspirations, but the team - it’s only going to work if the team is able to thrive in that," said the star who's known globally for his roles in Twilight, Frost/Nixon and Good Omens.

One other desire for the new national theatre company is that it will give space for actors, writers and directors to remain in Wales and still take on ambitious projects of scale. "One of the difficulties I think is bringing directors through, and being able to give directors, up and coming directors, the chance not to just work in studio spaces but on main stages and get them working on that kind of scale and level," he said, adding that Wales produces a strong stream of actors but many of them, including himself, leave to pursue their careers elsewhere.. He continued: "I think with writers, again, we’ve always had fantastic writers but having an incentive to write bold, ambitious plays about our country, that you know is going to get a chance of a production rather than writing a play that you know has no chance of being produced as it’s going to be too expensive."

Talking about bold productions, one of Welsh National Theatre's first productions will be an original play from Gary Owen, Owain & Henry, which promises to be an "epic" new play that focuses on the 15th century rebellion against the English crown by the outlawed prince, Owain Glyndŵr.

"There’s not many people who can put that on - and if the Welsh National Theatre is not going to put that on then no one is," Sheen, who will play Owain, mused. When asked where Owain Glyndŵr would rank in the list of iconic roles he has played, he said: "It’s not just the opportunity to play that role - but to have started a company that puts that production on and tell that story on the sort of scale that we’re looking at here, at the Millennium Centre, and to know that there’s an audience out there who might be finding out about this story for the first time... that’s going to start a conversation, so I’m really excited."

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AMC’s Quiz: Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Sheen and Sian Clifford in Conversation with Entertainment Weekly’s Ruth Kinane   - 31/05/2020 #35

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Michael Sheen announces Welsh National Theatre's first productions as funding confirmed

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Lizzy & Michael, Studio Ghibli version

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Launch of the Welsh National Theatre, 02/04/2025 pics

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Michael Sheen to play Welsh prince who led rebellion against the English crown

He has been celebrated for playing the roles of a British prime minister and an English king but the Welsh actor Michael Sheen is now relishing the prospect of starring as a noted leader from his homeland – Owain Glyndŵr, the medieval Prince of Wales.

Sheen will take the lead in a new play, Owain & Henry, to be staged by his fledgling company, Welsh National Theatre, and hopes it will become a “defining moment” for Wales, triggering conversations about how it became the country it is, the pressing social issues it faces and the question of independence.

Sheen said the play, written in blank verse by the Welsh playwright Gary Owen, was a “stonking epic”, challenging the depiction of Shakespeare’s unflattering picture of Glyndŵr in his Henry IV plays.

“The Owain that Gary has written is incredibly pragmatic, very real, dealing with the really difficult and sometimes disturbing choices a leader has to make,” he said “The play is brutal at times, it’s funny, subversive, challenging, controversial. When I first read it, I got to about five scenes in and thought, it can’t keep up like this but it does.”

Glyndŵr led a rebellion against the English crown in the 15th century and remains a hugely revered figure in Wales.

Sheen said: “It’s not just a historical piece, it speaks to now, who we are, where we’ve come from, why we struggle. Why is Wales behind in so many things, why is it so easy to cut away at our culture? Did we never have the same aspiration to build our nations that other countries have? This play’s about that.”

The issue of independence is bound to arise. Sheen said: “My position is that it’s really good to talk about it and explore it; my worry is that in Wales discussion about independence and related issues gets shut down. The platforms to discuss that at a national level are so meagre, so it’s great that in our first year we’re putting front and centre who we are and who we could have been.”

The play is to open at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff in November next year . “Playing the 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,” said Sheen, whose famous roles have included Tony Blair and Henry V.

Sheen will also take the lead in a second show from Welsh National Theatre, a version of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, which will be set in a small Welsh community rather than an American one.

It will open in Swansea in January 2026 before heading to Llandudno and Mold in north Wales, then on to Kingston upon Thames, south-west London. The Doctor Who show runner Russell T Davies will be a creative associate on the play.

The Welsh National Theatre came into being after National Theatre Wales announced it had “ceased to exist” following the loss of its Arts Council of Wales funding. It has evolved into Team (theatre, education, arts, music), focusing on grassroots work.

Arts Council of Wales has confirmed transition funding to help the new theatre develop its structures and vision.

Owain and Henry is co-produced with Wales Millennium Centre and Our Town with the Rose Theatre in Kingston Upon Thames.

As well as announcing the first new productions on Wednesday, the theatre announced it was commissioning plays from writers including Azuka Oforka.

It is looking at establishing “a creative engine room” in Wales and a scouting network that will search for new talent.

Sheen said: “Growing up in Port Talbot, playing football on a pitch next to the A48, I always knew there was a chance that a scout might be watching. I want every youngster, amateur and professional performing or working behind the scenes in Wales to have that same potential pathway to the creative top flight.”

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Michael Sheen launching the Welsh National Theatre in Cardiff, Wales Millennium Centre - 02/04/2025