Kirsty Housley

National Theatre Connections 2026 draws together eight new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK’s most exciting and popular playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Wrestling with themes like the Youth Custody Service, conspiracy, the climate crisis, exam pressure, grief and friendship, this collection lays bare a rich and complex terrain in which students can fully immerse themselves, explore and discover. This 2026 anthology represents the full set of eight plays offered by the National Theatre's 2026 programme, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

The Making Mischief Festival features work from some of today’s most exciting playwrights who are challenging and questioning our society. The Festival runs from 24 May to 17 June from The Other Place Studio Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. THE EARTHWORKS: “The universe doesn’t care if we know how it works.” On the eve of the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, two strangers – a journalist and a scientist – share their experiences of loss and hope in a funny but deeply touching one-act play. MYTH:“I can only see wrong choices. Things that will make everything worse.” In one wine-fuelled evening, two couples debate their materialistic lifestyle. As their dinner party descends into chaos, their friendship and their lives are irreparably changed. A play about those things we don’t want to see or say.