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National Theatre Wales will celebrate one of Wales' most distinctive voices of the last century with The Dark Philosophers, a brand new dramatisation of the ink-black comic tales of Gwyn Thomas, the great Welsh storyteller and dark, hilarious chronicler of the Valleys. The youngest of 12 children, Gwyn Thomas (1913-1981) was born and brought up in Cymmer, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. Growing up in poverty, he won a scholarship to Oxford University, and returned to Wales to teach. The Dark Philosophers, a collection of short stories, was published in 1946, while his novels include The Alone to the Alone (1947); All Things Betray Thee (1949); The World Cannot Hear You (1951), and Now Lead Us Home (1952). His play The Keep opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 1961, to great acclaim.