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National Theatre Connections Festival

National Theatre Connections Festival

28 Apr–02 May 2026

The Drum

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Tue 28 Apr
7:00 pm
From: £8.00
Wed 29 Apr
7:00 pm
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Thu 30 Apr
7:00 pm
From: £8.00
Fri 1 May
7:00 pm
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Sat 2 May
7:00 pm
From: £8.00
National Theatre Connections Festival

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Tue 17 Feb 2026 | 10 am

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Thu 19 Feb 2026 | 10 am

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Mon 23 Feb 2026 | 10 am

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Wed 25 Feb 2026 | 10 am

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Mon 02 Mar 2026 | 10 am

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Tue 03 Mar 2026 | 10 am

Each year, Connections commissions a selection of brand-new plays for young people to perform, pairing some of the UK’s most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow.

National Theatre works with over 250 youth companies and more than 6,000 young people annually from every corner of the UK.

We are excited to be one of the 33 Partner Theatre hosts and we can’t wait to welcome local schools and youth theatres to perform in The Drum.

 

List of performances:

Tue 28 Apr
Atlantic Coast Theatre Co. performing: Fishville
King Edward VI Community College performing: The Animals

Wed 29 Apr
Hele’s School performing: Cloud Busting
Lipson Cooperative Academy performing: Ride or Die

Thu 30 Apr
Plympton Academy Company performing: Fishville
Callywith College performing: Wildfire Road

Fri 01 May
Fowey River Academy performing: Sycamore Gap
Coombe Dean performing: Britney’s Lock

Sat 02 May
The Mullion Collective performing: Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth
DHSB Junior Youth Theatre Company performing: The Animals

Important information

Running time:
2 hours 15 mins, with a 15 minute interval between each act

The Animals (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 15+ (Frequent strong language, mild sexual references, allusion to suicide (offstage) and gang involvement, reference to self-harm (unseen), youth violence, and drug use (unseen/offstage))

Britney’s Lock (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 14+ (Mild sexual references, one use of strong language (an alternative is offered in the notes section of the text) and themes of anxiety)

Cloud Busting (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 13+ (Themes of bullying throughout, on-stage violence, references to anxiety and poverty, and one sexual reference)

Fishville (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 14+ (Mild sexual references, references to suicide and themes alluding to radicalisation and conspiracy theories)

Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 14+ (Themes exploring the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis, depictions of anxiety and references to colonialism)

Ride or Die (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 15+ (Contains frequent strong language, including two instances of very strong language and references to drug use and paraphernalia)

Sycamore Gap (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 14+ (Some references to violence and brutality, allusions to porn addiction, themes or references to the climate emergency, cancer, anxiety, panic attacks, and police brutality)

Wildfire Road (45 mins-1 hr approx) suggested age suitability: 13+ (Some strong language, mild sexual references and scenes of peril)

If you require this information prior to booking, please check back for updates or call our Box Office on 01752 267222.

About the plays

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National Theatre Connections Festival: The Animals

The Animals

by Sean Buckley

Student teacher Sam arrives at Redhill Youth Custody Secure Unit hoping to enrich the troubled residents’ 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.

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Britney's Lock

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.

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Cloud Busting

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.

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Fishville

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…

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth

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….

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Ride or Die

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.

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Sycamore Gap

Sycamore Gap

By Al Smith

A whodunnit about the felling of the Robin Hood Tree at Sycamore Gap. Set on the day after the felling, the local police are ‘in school’ conducting an investigation. The twelve members of the school’s eco-club are held in a classroom, being taken out and interviewed one by one, until the culprit cracks and confesses. While they wait for their turn, the pupils interrogate each other. Who could have done something so monstrous? What possible motivation could they have had? What impact will it have on their club and their community, now that the tree is gone? And will it be possible for any of them to move on?

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National Theatre Connections Festival: Wildfire Road

Wildfire Road

by Eve Leigh

A story about a generation whose future has been hijacked. The whole play takes place on a flight from London to Tokyo. There’s a hijacker on board and the flight is re-directed to Siberia and in the process saving the lives of all 416 people on board, as the rest of the world is engulfed in a massive wildfire. It’s metaphorical, prophetic and a tale for the most important question of our times – are we going to wake up and address the climate emergency before it’s too late?