National Theatre’s nationwide youth theatre festival – Connections 2024

Connections is the National Theatre’s annual, nationwide youth theatre festival. The programme is 29 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, Connections are working with nearly 270 youth companies from every corner of the UK.

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

NT Connections Day 2 – Friday 19 April

Kiss / Marry / Push Off Cliff by Josh Azouz, performed by Shenfield High School 6th Form

A group of friends go camping – but after only one night, one of them is ostracised by the rest of the group and cast out into wilderness for something they said…or was it something they did…? it’s strange and it’s about to get stranger as friendships are tested, new alliances formed, trusts are broken and reality is twisted out of shape…the trip becomes a rite of passage…guided by a moral compass, that isn’t entirely reliable. Suggested content guidance: Recommended for ages 14+. Strong language, sexual references, scenes of drug use and distribution, scenes of alcoholism, and children drinking alcohol

Shout by Alexis Zegerman, performed by The Sydney Russell School

Choir is for mad old people, right? When a group of school kids rebel against their boring music lesson they hit the wrong note and magically transform into their 80 year-old selves…and now live in a care home. Suddenly age, and their understanding of it, feels very relevant as they begin to confusedly navigate their way back to the present; no longer older, but maybe just a little wiser.  Suggested content guidance: Recommended for ages 13+. Some strong language.