Michael Sheen to reprise role as smash-hit Nye returns to Cardiff

Following a sell-out run earlier this year, a major play starring Michael Sheen as one of Wales’s most influential figures will return to Cardiff in August 2025.

Nye, the smash-hit co-production between the National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre, will return to the Welsh capital for a strictly limited run at the Donald Gordon Theatre on 22 – 30 August 2025.

Michael Sheen (Good Omens) will reprise his iconic title role of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, with further casting to be announced.

Tickets for the revival of Nye will be on public sale from Friday 11 October 2024, with Wales Millennium Centre members able to skip the queues to secure their tickets days before public release. Find out more about Ffrind membership at wmc.org.uk/ffrind.

Nye charts the life and legacy of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, a former coal miner from Tredegar who transformed the UK’s welfare state. It is written by Welsh playwright and screenwriter Tim Price (Teh Internet is Serious Business) and directed by the National Theatre’s outgoing Artistic Director Rufus Norris (Cabaret – West End, London Road, Small Island).

From campaigning at the coalfield to leading the battle to create the NHS, Nye Bevan is often referred to as the politician who’s had the greatest influence on the UK without ever being Prime Minister. Confronted with death, Nye’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Churchill in an epic Welsh fantasia.

The team behind this production once again includes Welsh artists Jess Williams (co-choreographer), Will Stuart (composer) and Francesca Goodridge (revival co-director).  The creative team is completed by set designer Vicki Mortimer, costume designer Kinnetia Isidore, lighting designer Paule Constable, co-choreographer Steven Hoggett, sound designer Donato Wharton, projection designer Jon Driscoll, casting by Alastair Coomer CDG and Chloe Blake, dialect coach Patricia Logue, company voice work Cathleen McCarron and Tamsin Newlands, consultant medical advisor Matt Morgan and associate lighting designer Lucy Adams.

Graeme Farrow, Wales Millennium Centre’s Chief Creative and Content Officer, said:
“With the perfect casting of Michael Sheen and powerful writing by Tim Price, combined with our own deep Welsh storytelling roots and the National Theatre’s producing brilliance, Nye undoubtedly struck a chord with audiences here in Cardiff and beyond. We’re thrilled to be giving Wales another chance next year to witness this epic, resonant theatrical experience.”

This co-production between the National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre continues a growing relationship between the two national companies,  following the transfer of The Boy with Two Hearts from Cardiff to the National’s Dorfman Theatre in 2022, as well as the ever-increasing touring presentations of National Theatre productions including the multi-award-winning War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.