Efforts to save Welsh folk songs by the wife of poet T.H. Parry Williams in a workhouse have inspired a new stage play.

Ledi'r Wyrcws (The Lady of the Workhouse), will tour 13 theatres across Wales this spring, starting at Galeri in Caernarfon and finishing at Pontio in Bangor.

Written by Jerry Hunter, it was inspired by an anecdote he heard about Lady Amy Parry-Williams recording folk songs in a warehouse in Denbighshire.

The playwright was aware that she had carried out pioneering work recording Welsh folk songs that were on the brink of disappearing. But he was surprised to learn that a workhouse was still standing in the 1950s.

Jerry said: "A member of a Welsh society I was addressing in a chapel in the Denbigh area pointed out the old building across the street after my lecture - noting that it had once been a workhouse where Lady Amy Parry-Williams recorded some of her finest folk songs from a woman who lived there in the 1950s."

"The story immediately captured my imagination, and I began asking myself questions, such as: who was this woman and why had she ended up in the workhouse?"

"What kind of conversations did Amy Parry-Williams have with her 'between the songs', so to speak? And why was a workhouse still standing in the 1950s — the era of the newly founded NHS?"

"It was therefore fascinating to imagine the two women spending a day in one another's company - both clearly cherishing the same culture, yet coming from very different backgrounds and living in vastly different circumstances."

"A stage play was the obvious medium through which to explore such a situation."

Morfudd Hughes, Owen Arwyn and Judtih Humphreys make up the cast of Ledi'r Wyrcws, which explores the relationship between Lady Williams and the lady in the workhouse - one carrying a tradition and the other hoping to safeguard it - as they record.

The Galeri Caernarfon production is supported by the UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund and Gwyned Council in an effort to promote the legacy of the 2023 National Eisteddfod held in Boduan, near Pwllheli.

Tour dates include:

• Wednesday 4th / Thursday 5th March: Galeri, Caernarfon
• Saturday 7th March: Theatr Twm o'r Nant, Denbigh
• Tuesday 10th March: Theatr Clwyd, Mold
• Friday 13th March: Theatr Derek Williams, Bala
• Wednesday 1st April: Neuadd Dwyfor, Pwllheli
• Thursday 2nd April: Pontio, Bangor

To book tickets, visit the Galeri website.