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URBAN RENEWAL
The Independent
|March 06, 2026
The inaugural production of the new Welsh National Theatre is a slick revival of 1938 American classic ‘Our Town’ – and Michael Sheen somehow makes it work
Why Our Town? When Newport-born thespian Michael Sheen announced last year that Thornton Wilder’s canonised 1938 play would be the inaugural production for his new Welsh National Theatre (an ambitious, self-funded replacement for the recently shuttered National Theatre Wales), it seemed, perhaps, an odd choice. Set in the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners, Our Town is about as Welsh as corn dogs or Super Bowl Sunday.
And yet, watching Francesca Goodridge’s assured production at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, I’m struck by just how apt a selection this was. Sheen (also the artistic director of the WNT) plays the Stage Manager,
This story is from the March 06, 2026 edition of The Independent.
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