Michael Sheen has been seen in motion as Owain Glyndŵr for the first time, in a teaser trailer released this morning. It marks Owain Glyndŵr Day. The still released with it shows the Port Talbot actor, bearded and grey, lowering a battered gold crown onto his own head.
The date is the point. On 16 September 1400, Glyndŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his followers, the start of a 15-year rebellion against Henry IV that made him the last native Welshman to hold the title. Last year the same date brought the first photograph and audio of Sheen in the role.
In the new clip a priest proclaims him: “Acclaimed by blood, acclaimed by allies, acclaimed by enemies,” and, at the last, “Arise, Owain, Prince of all the Cymry.”
Owain & Henry is co-directed by Sheen and Steffan Donnelly, artistic director of the Welsh-language national company Theatr Cymru, with Hannah Noone as associate director. The writer is Gary Owen, the Olivier-winning Welsh playwright behind Iphigenia in Splott.
It opens in the Donald Gordon Theatre at Wales Millennium Centre on 5 November, with previews through to the 10th. The run is now listed to 28 November, a week longer than the dates announced last November.
The play the company was built around
Sheen told the South Wales Evening Post this month that the production is the reason the company exists. “Our Town was never meant to be the opening production of Welsh National Theatre. This was,” he said, adding that the vision for the company grew up around Owen’s script, which he was handed while performing Nye at the Centre.
He founded Welsh National Theatre, the English-language national company, after National Theatre Wales folded. He based it in Swansea’s civic centre. It opened with Our Town at Swansea Grand Theatre in January.
Amadeus, with Callum Scott Howells, follows in Cardiff and the West End next spring. Glyndŵr is the bigger swing: an original play on the second-largest stage in Europe, with a cast of 25.
A Swansea warrior and a Law & Order king
Linus Roache, of Law & Order, Vikings and the RSC’s Richard II, plays Henry IV. Bafta Cymru winner Rakie Ayola is Mared Ferch Dafydd, Owain’s wife; Emily Burnett is their daughter Catrin; Ned Costello is Hal, the English heir who will become Henry V.
Sophie Melville plays Lois, a mother turned warrior. She grew up in Swansea and studied drama at Gorseinon College before the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Her breakout role was Owen’s one-woman play Iphigenia in Splott in 2015, which won her The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, and she was Thea in Sheen’s Port Talbot drama The Way.
Also in the company are Sion Tudor Owen as Falstaff, Richard Lynch as Rhys, David Judge as Hotspur, Brendan Charleson as Percy, Gruffudd Glyn as Bryn, Ian Hughes as Baron Reginald Grey and James Wilbraham as Mortimer, with an ensemble of eleven. Anthony Matsena is movement director, Jon Bausor designs the set, Elin Steele the costumes and Dyfan Jones writes the score.
Before you book
The Centre lists the show as 14 plus, with strong language, violence, murder, blood, threats of sexual violence and torture, plus haze and loud noises. Performances are Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with 2.30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays, in English.
There are £8 off tickets for 16 to 30 year olds on Tuesday to Thursday shows, £12 school tickets with a free teacher’s seat per ten pupils, and group discounts from ten people, all on selected seats.
Sheen said at the cast announcement in July that people had wondered for years why Wales had not told this story on this scale. Ten weeks out, the answer is on sale at the Centre’s box office.
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Since when was Owain Glyndwr’s wife black ?
How inauthentic can you be ? What’s next Owain Glyndwr munching a Big Mac & fries and chatting to Henry 1v on his mobile ? ? Sorry historical authenticity matters what next a white woman playing Martin Luther King’s wife ?