'Big, bold, ambitious': Sheen seeks to bring Welsh stories to life at new national theatre

Michael Sheen, a global star of screen and stage, is spearheading a new national theatre for Wales, promising to create big, bold plays that bring vital stories about his homeland to life.

- Steven Morris

Sheen said he was bursting with ideas and promised to appear in the newly forged Welsh National Theatre's first production, a "foundation" story about Wales staged at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Sheen, who has been announced as artistic director of the theatre company, told the Guardian that Wales's stories were "underexplored in the English language".

"Could you tell me the name of the great play about Aberfan or the Merthyr Rising or the Rebecca riots? Where is our Welsh canon of great plays? We can't do Under Milk Wood for the rest of eternity.

"I'm bursting with ideas and people are bursting with work that they want to do with us and that's what's really exciting about it."

In December, National Theatre Wales, which was established in 2009, announced it had "ceased to exist" after its Arts Council of Wales funding was cut. It has evolved into Team (theatre, education, arts, music), focusing on grassroots work.