New TV Adaptation for Grav

Welsh broadcaster S4C has commissioned a TV adaptation of the Torch Theatre’s hit one-man show, Grav.

Adapted for television from the award-winning stage play of the same name by Owen Thomas, Grav is a film about the life of Welsh cultural and sporting personality Ray Gravell, one of Welsh rugby’s most revered figures.

Over the past six years, the Torch Theatre stage play, directed by its artistic director, Peter Doran, and performed by Gareth John Bale, has been seen by thousands of audience members across Wales, England and Scotland, and has also toured to Washington and New York.

Grav is widely regarded to be the play that inspired the Welsh Rugby team to win the 2018 Men’s Guinness Six Nations Championship, after being performed to the Welsh team in the Principality Stadium ahead of their win over England.

Now, the Grav story continues, as it makes the leap from stage to screen, in this one-off programme, which will be screened on S4C in September. Gareth John Bale reprises the title role.

Peter Doran says: “This piece never fails to amaze me, we’ve performed the show around 120 times, sold out in
Edinburgh, taken it to America twice… If it wasn’t for Covid we’d be in South Africa next month. We were invited to the Adelaide festival, we opened the last Rugby World Cup and now it’s being adapted for television, I really don’t know where it will end. I really can’t think of any other new Welsh plays that have had such a journey. It’s all very exciting.”

In October 2007 Ray Gravell, a man who for many embodied what it is to be Welsh, passed away after succumbing to complications resulting from contracting diabetes. He was 56.

With the blessing of Mari, Ray’s widow, and contributions from his Welsh and British Lions team mates, the one-man show explores the life of a man who was as fascinating away from the rugby field as he was on it.

TORCH THEATRE, ST PETER’S ROAD, MILFORD HAVEN, SA73 2BU
boxoffice@torchtheatre.co.uk