A chance phone call with up-and-coming director Francesca Goodridge led the Rose Theatre’s artistic maestro Chris Haydon to co-produce the inaugural show by the newly formed Welsh National Theatre right here in Kingston.

That chat has created a tender, heart-warming portrait of an Edwardian village in Our Town, which runs until March 28, with drama chameleon and company founder Michael Sheen the omnipresent narrator and guide, chatting with endearing familiarity with the audience.

Yasemin Özdemir and Peter Devlin in Our Town
Pic by Helen Murray

Written in the late 1930s by American playwright Thornton Wilder, and now translated from Yankee to Taffie, it’s a celebration of a rural community in transition to modern industrial times, lamenting what is being lost in that process and revering past generations and characters.

It follows life in the small settlement of Grover’s Corners; births, marriages and deaths.

It bigs up the everyday, and urges us not to forget the values of yesteryear in the giddy rush to tomorrow… a lesson that is as valuable today as it ever was with the unstoppable advance of AI.

A long first half (just shy of an hour and a half) leads to a short second act when we jump forward in time to see what has become of the cast we’ve been introduced to.

Tribute to Jess Williams, for coordinating stage movement, to the wonderfully focused players for keeping up an exacting pace, and – especially – to Yasemin Özdemir and Peter Devlin, who play the young couple at the heart of the action.

The audience attention never wavers; this is an unexpectedly gripping celebration of mundane, ordinary living, laced with some beautiful singing.

The message is to make the most of the times you’re living through.

The theatre’s five-minute take-your-seats Tannoy announcement is given in English and Welsh; a nice touch. rosetheatre.org