NT Connections

Connections is the National Theatre’s annual, nationwide youth theatre festival. The programme is 30 years old and has a history of championing the talent of young people from across the UK. Every year, the Connections commissions ten new plays for young people to perform. The programme brings together some of the UK’s most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. In 23/24, we worked with over 250 youth companies from every corner of the UK.

As a partner theatre, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are thrilled to be welcoming eight companies over three days to present their work.

The Animals by Sean Buckley

Student teacher Sam arrives at Redhill Youth Custody Secure Unit hoping to enrich the troubled resident’s lives there by introducing them to the subject of Philosophy. The wary class resist engaging in this alien, ancient art of thinking, at first, but start to thaw when they find themselves being challenged and empowered in ways they haven’t previously experienced. Yet the hope Sam’s teaching offers them is fragile, particularly for hard fronting Gee, who’s on the verge of being released from the unit and is secretly terrified at this prospect.

The Animals looks at education within the Youth Custody System and the difficulties young people there face.

Recommended for ages: 15+

Content guidance:

• Contains frequent strong language (clean version available)

• Mild sexual references

• Allusion to suicide (offstage)

• Reference to self-harm (unseen)

• References to youth violence References to drug use (unseen/offstage)

Britney’s Lock by Alexandra Wood

When Ruby acquires a lock of Britney Spears’ hair as a relic to help her stay calm during her GCSE mocks, her friends dismiss it, but one by one they feel its power and want a piece of it, until it is destroyed. This funny play about how we cope in stressful situations, explores the power of belief and friendship.

Recommended for ages: 14+

Content guidance:

• Mild sexual references

• One use of strong language (an alternative is offered in the notes section of the text)

• Themes of anxiety

Cloud Busting by Helen Blakeman (based on the novel by Malorie Blackman)

When Sam wakes up, he fully believes that today will just be another ordinary day – but that’s before Mr Mackie tells Class 8M to write a poem about someone they care about. Unexpectedly, Sam volunteers to write about Davey… Davey was Sam’s friend – not that Sam wanted anyone to know that. While the cool girls in the class thought Davey was ‘well cute in a sad dog sort of way’, the tough boys – Morgan and his crew – just saw Davey as different. Davey liked to dance. Davey liked to look at the clouds and see the shapes they made. Davey liked looking at the world in a different way to everybody else. But no matter how much Sam liked being with Davey, he always denied their friendship. Then one day, the bullying goes

a step too far… but will Sam step in to help his friend? It’s not the ordinary day Sam thought it was going to be.

•Recommended for ages: 13+

Content guidance:

• Themes of bullying throughout

• On-stage violence

• References to anxiety and poverty

• One sexual reference

Fishville by Afsaneh Gray

The story starts when a young man named Jared takes to the sea in swimming gear but never starts swimming… His death, which follows on from the unexpected sale of his parents’ house, throws the community into chaos. When the daughter of the man who bought Jared’s house arrives in Saltwell and finds a severed foot washed up at her feet, she and the daughter of the ‘second homers’ decide to investigate what drove Jared into the sea. They uncover a local myth about an underwater community – did Jared believe the myth? Then, ‘Jared’ starts posting messages, asking his friends to join him. With the new girl’s father spending more and more time in the sea, and the myth gaining traction, the young people must figure out what’s going on before anybody else is lost to a vengeful ocean…

Recommended for ages: 14+

Content guidance:

• Mild sexual references

• References to suicide

• Themes alluding to radicalisation and conspiracy theories

Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth by Kirsty Housley

When an alarm is deliberately set off during their GCSE drama exam, a group of students find themselves in detention. As they struggle to navigate the seemingly endless tasks they’ve been set as punishment, questions are raised. Who set off the alarm and why? Will they ever get out of this detention? Will it cost them their GCSE? And why is Shakespeare still so popular? So begins a meta deconstruction of the play as we move from classroom to theatre, artifice to reality. The performers switch between their characters and their real selves as they interrogate Shakespeare, the canon, the education system, the nature of theatre, and the world itself. They begin to wonder whether the classics really are that classic, or whether we might need to tell a different story altogether….

Recommended for ages: 14+

Content guidance:

• Themes exploring the climate emergency

• Themes exploring the cost of living crisis

• Depictions of anxiety

• References to colonialism

Ride or Die by Florence Espeut-Nickless

The Kids spend the whole year arguing about whether Alton Towers is actually better than Thorpe Park. At the moment Alton Towers has got 2 votes and Thorpe Park has got 2 votes. The deciding vote goes to the youngest, Angel who hasn’t actually been to any of them yet, cause he’s in year 7 and you don’t get to go on The Theme Park Extravaganza until the end of Year 7. But that’s literally in like 2 weeks, so it’ll be settled once and for all, very very soon! So what could possibly go wrong?….Angel getting suspended from school, Nan going off on a surprise holiday, Dad coming round to look after them (and he’s useless) and lasts one night, and The Kids borrowing Nan’s car and colliding with a Waitrose delivery van. The whole affair is literally a car crash.

Recommended for ages:

• With swearing: 15+

• Swear-free version: 13+

Content guidance:

• Contains frequent strong language, including two instances of very strong language.

• References to drug use and paraphernalia