Photos reveal behind-the-scenes glimpse of new Michael Sheen play

New photos have been released of the first production by Michael Sheen's new Welsh National Theatre.

Our Town opened last month, a year after Sheen announced he would fund a new national theatre for Wales after the original closed due to funding cuts.

Speaking to the BBC as he rehearsed, Sheen, who is also the creative director, said he hoped that performing with the company "is what Welsh actors most strive for".

The play was performed for the first time in the company's home city of Swansea in January, and has begun its tour of north Wales before being staged at the Rose Theatre in London in February and March.

Our Town, written by US playwright Thornton Wilder, follows the daily lives of the residents of Grover's Corners in New Hampshire.

First performed in 1938 - the year it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama - it is considered an American classic and is widely thought to have inspired Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.

Speaking to the BBC, Sheen said: "For a play about what seem like small events going on in a small town, there's this sense of a shadow growing over it, and in that shadow a warning that life can disappear like that, that this can all be gone in a second, and you have to make the most of it.

"It taps you into something essential about what it is to be alive, and how precious that is."

With Sheen as the company's creative director, Francesca Goodridge directs the Welsh twist of the American classic, with Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies contributing as creative associate.

The company will stage its second production later this year, with Sheen set to star in and co-direct Owain & Henry, a dramatisation of the 15th century rebellion by Owain Glyndwr against the English reign of King Henry IV.

Sheen called it the "origin story of our nation" when the production was first announced in April.

"It's a real foundational story for Welsh culture and sense of Welsh identity, and yet there's been practically nothing done about it," he said.

Sheen, who has been named the most influential figure in theatre by The Stage magazine, hopes the Welsh National Theatre will "do bigger things that are more expensive, and have more ambition, and are bolder" than its predecessor.