The Michael Sheen Chronicles: 'Our Town'
The Welsh National Theatre's debut will be a touring production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play
When Artistic Director Michael Sheen announced back in April the inaugural production to be staged for the debut of the Welsh National Theatre (WNT), one of the shining lights in literature was at the top: Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town.
While the correlation between small-town America and the valleys of Wales may seem vast as the ocean that separates them, the connection is stronger than you might imagine. For this edition of The Michael Sheen Chronicles, and as a prelude and primer to the narrative, I’ll be showcasing various productions of the play, the actors who inhabited the roles, and the mechanics and staging of the presentation. I’ll also offer a hypothesis on how the WNT’s Our Town can draw universal parallels to this very American, yet very interpretive set of characters.
Thornton Wilder was born on April 17, 1897 in Madison, Wisconsin. His father was a U.S. diplomat, and Thornton spent his early years in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale and his Master of Arts degree in French literature from Princeton. His first novel The Cabala was published in 1927, and he was awarded his first of three Pulitzer Prizes for The Bridge of San Luis Ray in 1928.
He began writing Our Town (originally titled M Marries N, then Our Village) from 1930 to 1937, while teaching a part-time seminar on creative writing and offering a lecture course in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. Additionally, he became something of a celebrity ne’er-do-well, attending parties and mingling with the glitterati of the Chicago social scene.
Wilder’s popularity as a scholar and public figure, however, didn’t shield him from writer’s block. He experienced trouble finishing Our Town’s third and final act, allegedly worried about a solemn downward ending, but was able to work its conclusion while living in Zurich, witnessing the rise of fascism and the dark turn of events gripping the European landscape. Yet, with various interpretations since 1938’s premiere (including Wilder portraying The Stage Manager for a brief turn), the play’s minimalist approach, emotional empathy and relatability, and as Wilder would later write, “the life of a village against the life of the stars,” would win praise as a metaphorical example of morality, community, and ultimately, death.
The production, directed by Jed Harris, was first staged as a one-night engagement at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938, to mixed reviews. It then moved to Boston, then to New York City, first at the Henry Miller’s Theatre and then the Morosco Theatre, on February 14, 1938, where it ran until November, for some 300 performances. While First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her daily column, “It is more interesting and more original and I am glad I saw it, but I did not have a pleasant evening,” New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson tapped into the collective populace with an eye towards future generations: “Under the leisurely monotone of this production is a fragment of the immortal truth. Our Town is a microcosm. It is also a hauntingly beautiful play.”
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The setting for the play is the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, with a start date of May 7, 1901, and noted by the Stage Manager in a timeframe that runs until 1913. Despite the revelation of the coordinates placing it off the coast of Rockport, Massachusetts, the specific mentions of other landmarks – Mount Monadnock, Jaffrey, Jaffrey Center, Peterborough, and Dublin – keep the characters rooted in the southern Granite State region.
The drama is set in three acts: Daily Life, Love & Marriage, and Death & Eternity. One of the chief attributes in staging Our Town is the use of metatheatrical devices, including ‘breaking the fourth wall’ through the narration of the Stage Manager directly addressing the audience and the players, performing on a sparse stage with minimal props and actors miming their actions. Except for the 1940 film version that changed the ending, Our Town’s primary focus is the growth in the relationship that revolves around the young protagonists George Gibbs and Emily Webb.
While dozens of productions have been staged throughout the years, the following are a few of the more notable dramatizations.
1939 saw the debut of a live radio production for The Campbell Playhouse, which featured Orson Welles in the role of the Stage Manager. The 1940 film version, with a significant change to the ending – approved by Wilder – which featured William Holden, Oscar-nominated Martha Scott, and original Broadway Stage Manager Frank Craven, can feel dated. The real surprise was a 1955 television musical that starred Frank Sinatra and up-and-coming actors Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint. If you’re only familiar with the iconic tune “Love and Marriage” as the theme song for Married… With Children, it has its origin story sprung directly from this version of Our Town.
1968 and 1969 saw a revival with Henry Fonda in the role of the Stage Manager, first at the Mineola Theatre in Garden City Park, New York, and later at The ANTA Theatre on Broadway, both productions of The Plumstead Playhouse, which included, amongst its directors, Martha Scott. And while the Sinatra adaptation was for broadcast (and survives as a Kinescope), a made-for-TV version was staged in 1977, once again for NBC, this time with Hal Holbrook in the titular role as the Stage Manager.
Our Town received a significant boost in 1988 when it was brought to life at New York City’s Lyceum Theatre with monologist-actor Spaulding Gray in the role of the Stage Manager. Videotaped for PBS’ Great Performances, the production won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play and the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
Alan Alda re-introduced the role after a 45-year absence to a UK audience at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre in 1991 with Robert Sean Leonard and Jemma Redgrave. Then, in 2002, Paul Newman returned to Our Town as the Stage Manager in his first theatre role in 38 years. The most recent production from 2024-25 landed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in NYC with Jim Parsons at the helm.
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And so, how will Michael Sheen give over his interpretation for the WNT in one of the most American plays ever written? As Tappan Wilder, the nephew of Thornton Wilder and Manager of the Wilder Estate, put it, “[It’s] a drama about one small town that was really about all of the Grover’s Corners in every part of the world. We in the Wilder Family are thrilled that audiences in Wales will get to experience Our Town in a production led by one of their own, the great Michael Sheen. We’re sure it will be a beautiful demonstration of the play’s timeless, global appeal.”
Director Francesca Goodridge added, “‘Hiraeth’ is a Welsh word without a perfect English translation, but it describes a kind of longing for a place, person, or time that you can’t get back to. A feeling we all know but can’t put into words. Our Town brings this feeling to life by showing us, even in the most uneventful days, how precious life is and forces us to live in the present.”
Russell T Davies will serve as creative associate and Pádraig Cusack as executive producer.
The Welsh National Theatre in conjunction with The Rose Theatre’s 2026 inaugural production of Our Town begins 16–31 January at Swansea Grand Theatre in Swansea, Wales, then runs rep 3–7 February at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales; 11–21 February at Theatr Clwyd in Mold, Wales and concludes at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames, London 26 February–28 March.
