Ten New Plays to be Performed at the National Theatre's Connections Festival 2023

From the 20-24 June 2023 The National Theatre is celebrating youth theatre as ten youth theatre companies and school groups from across the UK will stage new plays in the Dorfman Theatre as part of its 2023 Connections Festival.

The annual nationwide youth theatre festival, now in its 28th year, celebrates young talent with 5,600 young people aged 13-19 performing one of ten new plays from established and emerging playwrights including Lisa McGee (Derry Girls) and Shamser Sinha (Three Sat Under the Banyan Tree). These ten plays, commissioned by Connections for young people to perform, explore themes of justice, grief, love, teamwork, friendship, rural life, the end of the world and the climate emergency.

264 groups have had the opportunity to perform their selected play at one of 36 leading partner venues across the UK, from Pitlochry in Scotland to Plymouth in Southwest England, with young people involved in all aspects of the theatre making process both on and off stage. This includes getting involved with costume, lighting and set design.

To represent the vast range of young talent across the UK, ten companies are invited to perform on the Dorfman stage at The National Theatre. The productions at this year's festival are:

Date	Time	Play	Performed by
Tuesday 20 June	7pm	(Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past by Simon Longman	Ilkley Players Greenroom, Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Tuesday 20 June	8.30pm	Old Times by Molly Taylor	Bourne Academy, Bourne, Lincolnshire
Wednesday 21 June	7pm	Is This Good Enough? by Avaes Mohammad	Eastbury Drama Group, Barking, London
Wednesday 21 June	8.30pm	The Heights by Lisa McGee	St Brendan's Sixth Form College, Bristol
Thursday 22 June	7pm	Tuesday by Alison Carr	Plough Youth Theatre, Torrington, North Devon
Thursday 22 June	8.30pm	Innocent Creatures by Leo Butler	The Boaty Theatre Company, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
Friday 23 June	7pm	Model Behaviour by Jon Brittain	St Thomas the Apostle School and Sixth Form, Peckham, London
Friday 23 June	8.30pm	Samphire by Shamser Sinha	Aberystwyth Arts Centre Youth Theatre, Aberystwyth, Wales
Saturday 24 June	7pm	Strangers Like Me by Ed Harris	Crescent Arts Youth Theatre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Saturday 24 June	8.30pm	Is My Microphone On?by Jordan Tannahill	Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury, Kent

Rufus Norris, Director of The National Theatre said, "Watching talented young people from across the nation bring to life these new plays through the Connections Festival is a highlight of The National Theatre calendar. We hope all those who have participated this year have been inspired by what they have created and how they have created it. I can't wait to see the Dorfman Theatre bursting with the talent from the selected ten groups as they represent the passion and imagination of young people today."

All performances will be captioned.

Tickets are £5 each, or £8 for both shows each evening and are on sale now. To book tickets visit the NT Website.

About the Plays

(Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past by Simon Longman

A play about being young in the fields and towns that feel far away from where things might be happening; a play about the expectations of life and the circularity of human existence.

A recurring dream. There are fish, chickens, cows, who all look and sound like people and people who look kind of familiar. They dream about the past mainly, a past that they don't belong to but a past that wants to belong to them. And then there's a butcher, killing people. The dream circles around, going back to the start again and again; a dream they can't get escape.

Old Times by Molly Taylor

A play about stigmatism, friendship and justice.

Twins Stefi and Zafer are about to turn 18. However, life is throwing up complications: Zafer is ill and Stefi is scared their past is about to catch up with them. Five years ago, Stefi, Zafer and their friends were involved in an infamous crime that shook the town. Only one of them was accused and convicted: well-known trouble-maker and 'bad kid' Tom Joy. When Stefi finds out Tom Joy has been released from prison, she fears he will be out for revenge and decides it's time to get the gang back together. Stefi has a plan to protect them all, but will they ever be able to move on?

Is This Good Enough? by Avaes Mohammad

Young people from all over the city - the Rudeboys, the Party Girls, the Footballers, the Chess Players, the Skateboarders, the Drug Runners and the Uniformed Schoolkids - converge on the park one cold winter's night. They have been summoned there by the mysterious and enigmatic Cyroe. No one really knows who Cyroe is, or has ever really met him. All they do know is that when Cyroe calls, you answer.

The Heights by Lisa MCGee

This is a play about stories. Lillie lives on the Heights Estate; a place where nothing ever happens, except in Lillie's head. Lillie's not like most people. For starters, she never goes out, but sits in her bedroom window on the sixth floor of her tower block, watching the world and the people in it go by. As she sits, she makes up stories: some sad, some happy, some funny. But they are just stories, aren't they?

Tuesday by Alison Carr

An ordinary Tuesday turns very weird indeed when a tear rips across the sky over the school yard. Some pupils and staff disappear into the rip, while at the same time a whole new set of people rain down. That's what happens when parallel worlds collide! Confusion reigns as the 'Us' and 'Them' try to work out what is going on. As the air starts to disagree with 'Them', the race is on to try to get things back to how they were and safely return everyone to the universe they came from.

Innocent Creatures by Leo Butler

A play about the future, both imminent and far, far away.

Soon, very soon, Big Ben will be underwater, surrounded by ice floes. Enid and Mia wait to be rescued from the rising floodwaters and taken to a Holiday Inn to be reprogrammed. In this world, robots are in charge and Mia and Enid must decide whether they too want to live forever or take their chances in the icy waters. Will they decide that Earth's last sunset is worth hanging around for thousands of years to see?

Model Behaviour by Jon Brittain

When Mr Smallwood announces that his Politics Year Group are going to spend an entire day role playing what it's like to be a delegate at the United Nations, the keenest pupil in the class, Ronni, is delighted. Everyone else in the class isn't and they quickly exhibit their contempt for the project. What should be one of Ronni's most memorable days at school - a personal triumph as she displays her diplomatic and intellectual prowess, for the benefit of the whole of humanity - instead looks set to explode into a thermo-nuclear car crash of a day.

A fast-paced comic, white-knuckle-ride through the rollercoaster of personal (playground) politics played out against the backdrop of the world stage.

Samphire by Shamser Sinha

A play about school, special educational needs, love, independence and life in rural Suffolk.

Alicia lives in a children's home and Jake lives in a shed. They are a couple, though Jake shows more affection to his dog than he ever does to Alicia. Together, against the backdrop of rural Suffolk, they rob farms for animals to eat. But when they steal a piglet from Chelle's dad's farm, they make a big mistake, and their dreams are thrown into jeopardy.

Strangers Like Me by Ed Harris

A play about grief, masculinity, relationships and friendship.

Elbow's best friend, Hamster, has unexpectedly died. Everyone expects Elbow to be grieving... right? But Elbow isn't sure how to do it. Privately, Elbow is beginning to feel they weren't even as close as everyone makes out. It would be better if everyone just left Elbow alone - his mum, dad, stupid big brother, Donut, but especially all those annoying kids at school pretending they really care by writing poems, singing songs and holding a vigil at Elbow and Hamster's favourite meeting place. Who do they think they are? Elbow doesn't know. He just has a strange feeling inside - an absence of feeling at all.

Is My Microphone On? by Jordan Tannahill

How do we move forward from here? Young people know that time is running out, and will no longer be able to avoid the consequences of climate change. They speak to the adults in the audience, holding them to account, questioning the choices they have made and the choices that have not been made, and the decisions that children will be forced to make. What kind of future do they stand to inherit? In 2023 Is My Microphone On? will also be produced by youth theatre groups across Sweden, as part of Länk's national festival, culminating in performances on 22 April - Earth Day.

Apply to take part in Connections 2024

Applications are now open to take part in next year's Connection Festival. The National Theatre is looking for 250 schools and youth theatre companies to take part. For more information and to sign up, please visit the NT Website.

The Mohn Westlake Foundation supports nationwide Learning programmes for young people.

Connections is supported by The Mohn Westlake Foundation, Buffini Chao Foundation, Bank of America, The EBM Charitable Trust, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Katie Bradford Arts Trust, Susan Miller and Byron Grote, Mulberry Trust, The Peter Cundill Foundation, The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Woodward Charitable Trust and The John Thaw Foundation.

Nationwide learning is supported by Buffini Chao Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Clore Duffield Foundation, Tim and Sarah Bunting, Behrens Foundation, Cleopatra Trust, The Andor Charitable Trust and Milton Grundy Foundation.

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