Welsh National Theatre announces 2027/28 season plans

Welsh National Theatre has announced its full 2027/28 programme, confirming new productions, development projects and industry initiatives led by artistic director Michael Sheen.

The season includes Siân Phillips returning to the Welsh stage in a production of Samuel Beckett’s Rockaby, which will be presented alongside Not I and Footfalls in a triptych directed by Richard Beecham. The production will tour Wales and beyond in 2027. Phillips, now 93, returns following a career spanning more than eight decades across stage and screen.

Phillips said: “I am delighted to have been asked to join the Welsh National Theatre. I have waited a long time for this moment. Thank you Michael Sheen.

“I look forward to returning to the work of the great Samuel Beckett and reuniting with my director Richard Beecham. It will be like coming home in every way.”

The company has also announced a revival of Frank Vickery’s A Night on the Tiles, which will tour in spring 2028 as a co-production with RCT Theatres. The production marks ten years since the death of the Treorchy-born playwright.

Ross Vickery, grandson of Frank Vickery, said: “We are thrilled that Welsh National Theatre is reviving A Night on the Tiles. Seeing our grandfather’s work reach new audiences is a real honour for our family, and we’re grateful that his voice and storytelling continue to be celebrated.”

Katie Payne’s My Mix(ed up) Tape will also return in 2027 with support from Welsh National Theatre and Dirty Protest following a sold-out Welsh tour earlier this year. The production, written and performed by Payne and directed by Stef O’Driscoll, will head to the Edinburgh Fringe before further touring plans.

Payne said: “My Mix(ed up) Tape was born from wanting to see Welsh working-class women represented truthfully on our stages. For Welsh National Theatre to back new writing like this feels genuinely important for the future of bold, new voices in Welsh theatre. I’m so excited to reunite with Dirty Protest and our Partners, and now with the support of WNT, taking this story even further and continuing to shine a light on an experience that audiences will recognise and connect with.”

The new announcements join the previously revealed production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, which will see Michael Sheen and Callum Scott Howells play Salieri and Mozart respectively, directed by Jeremy Herrin. The production opens at Cardiff’s New Theatre in March 2027 before transferring to the Noël Coward Theatre in London, marking the first West End run by a Welsh national theatre company.

Sheen previously said: “It’s a full-circle moment for me to return to the West End with Amadeus. To play Salieri opposite a fellow Welshman as Mozart – a role that has meant so much to me – feels very special indeed.”

Welsh National Theatre also confirmed that new works by Azuka Oforka, Siân Owen, Rhys Warrington, Emily White, Owen Sheers, Katie Elin-Salt, Mathilde Lopez and Bethan Marlow are currently in development.

Away from productions, the company has launched a new Stage and Screen Writers’ Scheme with Cardiff-based production company Bad Wolf. The initiative will offer Welsh and Wales-based early and mid-career writers the chance to develop a new stage work while simultaneously exploring a television adaptation.

Jane Tranter, chief executive and co-founder of Bad Wolf, said: “Many of today’s most highly regarded television writers first found their voice in our theatres. We’re delighted to partner with Welsh National Theatre on this new initiative, which aims to discover, nurture and champion unknown and emerging Welsh writers whose work can resonate across both stage and screen.”

The company also announced partnerships with Oshi’s World to explore sensory adaptations of productions for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities, and Green Room Coaching, which will provide therapeutic support for people working on WNT productions.

Elsewhere, Catrin Mair Jones and Nick Davies have been named as the next Culture Scouts for Welsh Net, the organisation’s talent pathway initiative.

Discussions are also underway regarding a Broadway transfer and international streaming plans for Playing Burton, starring Matthew Rhys, while conversations continue around an international tour of Our Town.