Michael Sheen: The Way director to star in National Theatre film Nye about NHS founder Aneurin Bevan

Welsh actor Michael Sheen will play Labour Health Minister and founder of the NHS Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan in a National Theatre stage show that will also be broadcast live in cinemas across the UK from March.

Sheen is known for starring in Amazon Prime fantasy series Good Omens alongside David Tennant, and more recently for directing BBC drama The Way, but the actor has also had a lot of experience treading the boards.

He has played lead roles in Shakespeare productions including Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet, and other productions such as Amadeus, Caligula, and Under Milk Wood.

In his latest stage role, Sheen plays Nye Bevan, a British politician who is regarded as being the most impactful on the country without having served as Prime Minister. In the show, Nye is close to the end of his life and goes on a journey through his memories, to his time working in the mines of Monmouthshire as a teenager, to his political rise, conflict with Winston Churchill, and instrumental role in establishing the National Health Service.

Who was Nye Bevan?

Bevan was born into a working class mining family in Wales in 1897 - he left school at 14 and followed his father into the mines (his father later died of a lung condition caused by inhaling coal dust.

Bevan had nine siblings, of whom only five lived into adulthood and these early experiences of death likely influenced his later actions in transforming the welfare state. 

He became an MP in 1929 and though the Second World War was opposed to the coalition government. But in the post war years he became the Health Secretary in a Labour government and led the campaign to established a policy of medical care that was free at the point of need, and in doing so established the NHS in July 1948.

Bevan later served as Foreign Secretary, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, a post he held until his death in July 1960, aged 62, but it was for his work as Health Minister that he is best remembered. 

When is Nye on at the National Theatre?

Nye will be performed at the Olivier Theatre on London’s South Bank, with the first performance taking place on Saturday February 24, with performances running several nights a week until the final performance on Saturday May 11.

Several performances are already sold out, but tickets can still be purchased at the National Theatre website.

When is Nye in cinemas?

The premiere live broadcast of Nye will take place on Saturday March 23 at the Omniplex Cinema in High Wycombe. The next live cinema broadcasts will take place at several UK locations on Tuesday April 23, with many more being held until July 23. For the full list of screenings check the National Theatre Live website.