Our Town review: Michael Sheen's all-Welsh production brings life, loss and some much-needed perspective to London

Thornton Wilder's 1938 play Our Town has sometimes been hailed as "the greatest American play ever written". Set in the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners, the show follows two of the town's families, taking snapshots from across their lives from childhood to marriage to death, all the while centring around the mild mentality and dreams so often associated with small-town America.

Yet, such is the magic of Michael Sheen's newest production that this US-focussed play can sit in the Rose Theatre Kingston with an all-Welsh cast, feeling as snugly at home as a journalist in a stationary shop.

Brought to life by the new Welsh National Theatre, which has been founded by the Good Omens star, this revival of Our Town is a warming, soulful experience that makes you feel as if you were stepping into a foaming hot bath.

Comfortably, it wends its way through the lives of the Gibbs and Webb families, taking meandering detours into the culture and atmosphere of the town, all the while guiding you to a conclusion that is deep and dark, and yet so gratifying.

As a play that is essentially a series of moments in these families' lives, I imagine it would be easy for a production to become jarring or muddled. Yet throughout this adaptation you are placed in the safe pair of hands of Sheen himself who simply plucks you up and places you down oh so gently into a scene after scene. As the Stage Manager, he talks directly to the audience and quite literally shines a light on the innermost feelings of the town's inhabitants, giving you access and them a voice.

We are so used to meta-theatre and fourth-wall breaks acting as an over-exaggerated wink to the audience or a way to mock the cast-members on stage, but here it is delivered without a hint of irony or derision. Though clearly a very American sentiment it is still refreshing to see a show that simply presents a small, satisfying life and invites you to take stock of your own.

That feeling of hopping from one scene to the next is also prevented by just how beautifully fluid this show is. The cast use exceptional movement and dance to shift from one scene to another, using their bodies as a physical reminder of how time flows and whirls away from us.

The Thornton Wilder play has always been known for its minimal use of staging, and here we have a wondrous example of how a few ladders and boards can present everything from church doors to the passage to the after life.

All this is of course accomplished by the cast, all of whom brought rye wit and deep feeling to the stage. Particular highlights included Nia Roberts and Sian Reese-Williams as Mrs Webb and Mrs Gibb, both beautifully portraying the starry-eyed dreamer and world-weary protector that seems to sit in so many mothers.

Plus, Rhys Warrington as Simon Stinson was an eerie presence whose character gave us glimpses into darker themes like alcoholism and repressed sexuality, although his story is slightly off to the side he drew the eye every time he appeared on stage.

Overall, Our Town is a gorgeous life-affirming look into the worlds of ordinary people, and how much there is to be learned there. And what I've learned is to keep a very close eye on what the Welsh National Theatre does next.

Our Town will run at Kingston's Rose Theatre from now until Sat 28 Mar 2026.

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