Marking its 30th anniversary, Connections is Britain’s biggest youth theatre festival, and runs at the National Theatre each year. For Connections 2025, ten exciting new plays were presented by young people companies across the United Kingdom in June 2025.
Although I was unable to sample the work on stage this year (I hope to rectify that in 2026), I was keen to read this collection of the ten plays that doesn’t just reproduce them in full, but also includes character and workshop notes, and suggestions for performance.
Each play is an enthralling read on the page, and across the collection a range of topics and styles are explored. You 2.0 by Alys Metcalf is based around technology, while The Conspiracy of Trees by Jane Bodie, Mia and the Fish by Satinder Chohan and Brain Play by Chloe Lawrence-Taylor and Paul Sirett play with more fantastical elements in plot and production.
In Their Name Is Joy by May Sumbwanyambe, Ravers by Rikki Beadle-Blair, and Fresh Air by Vickie Donoghue, groups of young people come together to solve particular issues and conflicts, and in Saba’s Swim by Danusia Samai we look at the complexity of disappearance. In No Regrets by Gary McNair a stream of unconnected scenes allow a diverse range of ideas to be explored, and Normalised explores several issues around prejudice and masculinity.
The exercises given would be useful for any group, but are particularly tailored for techniques and concerns of interest to a new generation of theatre-makers. Challenging, provocative and timely topics including migration, loss, activism and neurodiversity allow young people to explore a world that may seem uneasy and irrelevant.
By including conversations and questions raised within the workshops, this collection adds extra context and insight into each play, while offering inspiration and encouragement for companies keen to mount the plays after their initial debut at the National Theatre.
I was engrossed in each and every title, and would recommend this for young theatre fans and performers, teachers, companies, and those who simply wish to tap into the type of plays that are being created with a 21st century audience in mind. Each play raises questions about the world around us while being diverse, original, and profound. Whether you read, perform, or study these plays, they are highly recommended for any dramatic bookshelf.
You can buy National Theatre – Connections 2025 now, published by Methuen Drama.
The National Theatre season was performed as follows:
- Fresh Air – Central Foundation Boys School (London)
- Ravers – HOME Young Company (Manchester)
- Mia and the Fish – Abbey Grange Academy (Leeds)
- The Company of Trees – Hamilton District Youth Theatre
- Their Name is Joy – NGA Theatre Company, Nottingham Girls Academy
- Saba’s Swim – Central Youth Theatre (Wolverhampton)
- Normalised – Brassneck Youth (Belfast)
- No Regrets – Glasgow Acting Academy
- Brain Play – Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School (Ramsgate)
- YOU 2.0 – Everyman Youth Theatre (Cardiff)