Michael Sheen to fund new national theatre for Wales

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen is funding a brand new theatre firm to fill the hole left by the folding of Nationwide Theatre Wales.

He would be the creative director of Welsh Nationwide Theatre, which can purpose to inform “massive tales on massive phases for large audiences”.

The primary manufacturing, due in autumn 2026 and starring Sheen himself, might be introduced within the coming months.

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

Sheen stated he was placing “the whole lot behind” the enterprise, which might have “Welsh theatre makers, Welsh tales and Welsh actors” on the coronary heart of the corporate.

The corporate is in search of non-public and public funding, however Sheen stated self-financing it initially would enable it to face “by itself two ft”.

“I would like it to be one thing that represents the wealthy tradition that we’re and at all times have been on this nation,” he stated.

“We need to please ourselves however thrill the world. I would like to have the ability to inform massive tales on massive phases for large audiences.”

Sheen stated the information Nationwide Theatre Wales was prone to fold was “extremely unhappy, however not a shock” and prompted him to take motion.

“[I realised] if we do not discover a solution to reimagine the best way ahead, it might be a very long time – if ever – that we’ve the chance to have a nationwide theatre in Wales once more.”

Sheen’s announcement comes a day after the Senedd Sports and Culture Committee revealed a report displaying Wales is near the underside of Europe in terms of public spending.

The actor stated Welsh Nationwide Theatre was open to working with different theatre makers and had already been in contact with Theatr Cymru, previously Theatr Genedlaethol about the potential of collaborating.

Sheen stated he was impressed to dream massive after the runaway success of Nye, the place he performed NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.

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

“Welsh writers and Welsh theatre makers must be on the forefront of this. And our Welsh tales must be the guts of it,” he stated.

“I feel for those who put that on with ambition and audacity, with creativity and innovation, then individuals will reply to it.”

He stated his position because the trainer in Nationwide Theatre Wales’s first – and finest recognized – manufacturing The Ardour, again in 2011, was a formative expertise.

Like that manufacturing, he desires Welsh Nationwide Theatre performs to herald non-traditional theatre audiences, citing Gavin and Stacey as one other inspiration.

“You already know, we simply seen over Christmas, Gavin and Stacey getting massive figures. That is as a result of that is reflecting our life, what we recognise, and never solely that, however providing us one thing constructive and hopeful and folks will reply to that.

“There isn’t any cause why you may’t try this by means of sensible performs and among the most fantastic items of literature. However it would not must be simply that.

“I feel that is why I am throwing the whole lot at this. If it would not work, it would not work.”

Final month, the Welsh authorities elevated the tradition sector’s funding in its draft price range for 2025-2026 and, along with Arts Council Wales, supplied a £3.6m jobs fund for the sector.

Dafydd Rhys, chief government of Arts Council of Wales stated it had supplied Nationwide Theatre Wales with each transition and resilience funding to assist it to reimagine and restructure its operations.

He added: “It’s thrilling that the organisation is now capable of transfer into this new section at first of a brand new yr, and we look ahead to seeing how each Group Collective Cymru and Welsh Nationwide Theatre develop their new artistic programmes.”