Michael Sheen’s statement of intent for his newly founded national theatre for Wales couldn’t be more clear. The Welsh actor launched the company in January after the demise of National Theatre Wales owing to funding cuts. This week, Sheen announced that one of his first plays will be Owain & Henry, the story of Owain Glyndŵr, who led a 15-year revolt against the English in 1400. Sheen will star as Glyndŵr, adding the last Welshman to have been proclaimed Prince of Wales to a résumé that includes Tony Blair, David Frost and, most recently, another Welsh hero, Aneurin Bevan.

Retelling Shakespeare’s Henry IV from the Welsh perspective was “an act of defiance” and “resistance”, Sheen told BBC Four’s Front Row, saying that he hoped the play would spark national conversations, not least about his country’s relationship with England. Sheen returned his OBE in 2017, calling for an end to the practice of keeping the title of Prince of Wales in the English royal family.

On a less epic yet equally ambitious scale, the new theatre will also stage

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