Sheen handed back his OBE<\/a> for services to drama after learning more about the history of his native Wales.<\/p>\nOwain & Henry is a co-production between Welsh National Theatre, of which Sheen is artistic director, and the Wales Millennium Centre.<\/p>\n
Linus Roache will portray Henry IV, while Sheen will co-direct the play alongside Steffan Donnelly.<\/p>\n
Sheen said learning more about Welsh history had changed his understanding of his own national identity.<\/p>\n
“It’s enriched and nourished my life and my sense of my national identity so much to find out more and more about this,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And so I think if this production can be a catalyst for a lot of people being able to engage in that, I think that would be fantastic.”<\/p>\n
Sheen said much of the history he remembered being taught at school had been “from an English point of view” and there was “a massive hole in my knowledge about my own country”, which he believed was the case for a lot of Welsh people.<\/p>\n
The new play also stars Rakie Ayola as Owain’s pragmatic wife Mared.<\/p>\n
![\"Rakie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/8c91e01c8ed5a8c23436eea4621e4e3d.png\"\/)
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After a long time apart in their acting careers, Ayola and Sheen will appear together once again [BBC]<\/p>\n
Ayola last acted opposite Sheen 40 years ago when they were both teenagers, as part of a National Youth Theatre of Wales residency.<\/p>\n
She said: “[Michael and I] have got some unfinished business, which is perfect to play these two married people, who’ve got a lot going on.”<\/p>\n
The Holby City actor, who grew up in Ely, Cardiff, said Owain Glynd\u0175r was only known to her as the name of a pub in the city centre until she was an adult, despite him being “an integral part of Welsh history”.<\/p>\n
Welsh history is now a compulsory part of the Curriculum for Wales.<\/p>\n
Graeme Farrow, creative director at the Wales Millennium Centre, said: “I think producing ambitious theatre on this scale is even more of a gamble than ever because the costs have gone up, the financial risks are greater than ever, but with this we knew the risk was worth taking, it’s a brilliant play.<\/p>\n
“The response has been sensational. It’s going to be pretty much full every night if not sold out for the whole of its run which is a huge relief, but now it’s all about putting on the show.”<\/p>\n
Owain & Henry runs at the Wales Millennium Centre from 5 November until 28 November.<\/p>\n
More top stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welsh people should be asked whether they want to take the Prince of Wales title back when it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1183201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,114318,532,320667,16,15,1764,320668,12497,37215,320669],"class_list":["post-1183200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wales","tag-britain","tag-great-britain","tag-henry","tag-prince-william","tag-sheen","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-wales-in","tag-welsh","tag-welsh-history","tag-welsh-national-theatre"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117203784872020236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Catherine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/cd08975ec60191c85f6940a79105a0b4.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/6895605d84012f0034664e7bc4aa9abe.jpg\"\/)
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