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Each year, the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. This 2021 pack captures the two new plays written for the 2021 festival that are perfect for schools and youth groups to perform and study. Written with flexibility in mind, these are perfect for exploration both virtually and in-person, responding to the restrictions in place due to Covid-19. It also includes National Theatre Connections 2020 anthology which features 9 plays, 8 of which are included in the 2021 festival performances. The plays included in this pack are: Find a Partner by Miriam BattyeLike There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz MyttonWind / Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola AdebayoTuesday by Alison CarrA series of public apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories) by John DonnellyTHE IT by Vivienne FranzmannThe Marxist in Heaven by Hattie NaylorLook Up by Andrew MuirCrusaders by Frances PoetWitches Can't Be Burned by Silva SemerciyanDungeness by Chris Thompson .

It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights, National Theatre Connections 2021 features work by brilliant artists. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the 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.This 2021 edition is intended as a companion to the 2020 anthology, which together represent the full set of 10 plays offered by the National Theatre 2021 Festival. The two plays included in this collection are Find a Partner by Miriam Battye and Like There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz Mytton. The anthology contains two play scripts, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that will give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

An edited and updated version of the script that ties in with the 2017 Broadway production.

Sadie has a one-night stand with the new office temp, Joao, but it develops into something much more serious when Joao reveals he's in love with her. Sadie is flattered but she has a long history of terrible relationships. She wonders if it's even possible for her to be happy in love? To answer that question, she calls upon her long dead uncle Red and her abusive ex-husband Clark, as well as her new therapist Mairead. Together they help her face some horrifying truths she's kept hidden for too long. Lyric Theatre Belfast, in association with Stephen Rea's Field Day Theatre Company, bring this powerful new play to the stage, to be broadcast on BBC Four as part of BBC Arts 'Lights up' for the new Culture in Quarantine Season - a celebration of British theatre, bringing newly-recorded staged productions from UK theatres to audiences across television, radio, iPlayer and BBC Sounds.Directed by Conleth Hill (Lord Varys, Game of Thrones) it stars award-winning actress Abigail McGibbon.

Something strange happens when the past comes crushing into you, right in the present.April, 1980. The British colony of Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe. A born-free, Tonderai Munyevu is part of the hopeful next generation from a country with a new leader, Robert Mugabe.Mugabe, My Dad and Me charts the rise and fall of one of the most controversial politicians of the 20th century through the lens of Tonderai's family story and his relationship with his father. Interspersing storytelling with Mugabe's unapologetic speeches, this high-voltage one man show is a blistering exploration of identity and what it means to return 'home'.

Sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself(Miles Davis)Two men meet at a funeral. Gil knew the deceased. Benny did not. Before long their families are close. Soon they'll be singing the same tune.Benny is a loner anchored by his wife and children. Gil longs to fulfill his potential. They develop a deep bond but as cracks appear in their fragile lives they start to realise that true courage comes in different forms.Featuring music from Gil and Benny's lives, Lolita Chakrabarti's searching, soulful new play asks what it takes to be a good father, brother or son.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Almeida Theatre in February 2021.

It's the moment of your death. There's a magic button. Do you delete your entire online legacy? Or do you keep it - and leave the choice for someone else? A story of contemporary grief unfolds through this intimate, funny performance that gently interrogates our need for connection.

Seriously William, you're eighteen and you're gay, for Christ's sake. You're meant to swim against the tide. A proper gap year is all about traveling. Seeing the world. Popping your cherry. This is our chance to start living. Me and you.This is the story of Dave; a dad in mid-life freefall who takes his repressed, gay, teenage son William on a wild adventure to Thailand. Gay love, straight love, trans love, buddy-love, drinking games and beer bellies. Fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a mad one!

Sex is easy. Intimacy is hard.A tender, funny and uplifting love story for the post-chemsex generation. Hunky dream boy Lex and bright spark Bradley are falling for each other. Big time. After three months, Lex has decided that tonight's the night. but Bradley's not so sure he wants to go all the way. With wisdom, wit and honesty, Tom Wright's bold new play explores the delicate emotions, moral dilemmas and personal demons we all take to bed with us.

Do you get to design your boobs? Is it like Build-A-Bear?Meet Lucy and Jess; two best friends who obsess over boys, booze and their boobs. But when her mother dies of breast cancer, Lucy is forced to make a decision that will change her body forever. A story that spans ten years, Lucy Light is a powerful duologue between two women that offers a nostalgic look at our relationship with our bodies, the hereditary nature of cancer, and the strength of female friendships.My front crawl is a bit f***ing feminineTumble Tuck is a funny, brutal and honest one person piece about body image, mental health and relationships, that seeks to examine what it means to be successful in a world where medals matter.In these two complementary new plays, Sarah Milton offers up two strong female led narratives with dynamic, complex characters.This edition was published to coincide with the London production of Lucy Light at The Vault Festival 2019.

Can you ever really trust a machine? It is the near future. A couple are struggling to conceive, but fortunately their company has the perfect solution. A woman waits in a VR metaverse to do homework with her young daughter.In a care home staffed by advanced AIs, a woman struggles to make a connection with her android carer.Interference is a trilogy of near-future plays. Staged in an empty office block transformed with vivid projection and atmospheric soundscapes. It asks the question: will technology interfere with what we really need from each other? This edition was published to coincide with National Theatre of Scotland's 2019 production.

All the girls love a bastard.Tom Jones follows the adventures of a young man of illegitimate birth through a tale of love, deception and mistaken identity; a feast of human nature, served up in the plain and simple manner of the West Country with all the high French and Italian seasoning of sex and vice. Will he gain his darling Sophia's hand? Will he escape the hangman's noose? Will he ever learn to keep it in his trousers.?Henry Fielding's comic picaresque novel 'A History Of Tom Jones, a foundling' caused a stir upon first publication in 1749. Often referred to as the first novel in the English language, this cunning new stage version tells the escapades and exploits of the infamous protagonist through an accessible and highly entertaining adaptation.

A housing crisis, a hung Dáil and an unlikely alliance.Haughey|Gregory follows the deal made between Tony Gregory and Charles Haughey in 1982, when Gregory took a surprise Dáil seat - and suddenly found himself holding the balance of power. Dublin's Inner City is devastated by unemployment and addiction - and the planners' solution is simply to bulldoze it. But the general election results in the novice TD, Tony Gregory, holding the balance of power. Can Gregory use his vote to achieve something for his constituents? To do so, he will have to face off against the dominant personality of Irish politics - Charles J Haughey.

A black comedy of power and complicity, in which a twelve-year-old Romanian girl is trafficked to London and left in the care of two down-and-out bachelors, with each party unable to communicate with the other.

Yasmin Sheikh feels torn in the city she used to call home, but Aisha sees a different London to her best friend. When Yasmin suddenly disappears to Syria, Aisha embarks on a mission to uncover the truth and decide whether there is any hope in Yasmin's new-found world.First conceived in 2016 after being cast in roles as a 'jihadi bride' or 'terrorist girlfriend' and generally dissatisfied with the narrative being told, Nyla Levy ran research workshops with school children and interviewed muslim community leaders as well as terrorism defence solicitor Tasnime Akunjee. The result voices the complexities of the choices made by disaffected youth, their vulnerability, and how the decisions made can changes lives, communities and countries forever.With fierce wit and disarming honesty, Does My Bomb Look Big in This? cleverly unveils a human story behind the headlines and questions how close or far we are from multicultural harmony.

I don't understand it. I've still got muscles, tendons, sinews, whatnots - nothing's changed skeleton wise, body wise. It's still all intact.Yet it doesn't work. It won't move itself.Leaping barriers of age, sexuality and gender, Gloria prepares to dance the Can Can one last time. Written and performed by the pioneering Claire Dowie, When I Fall If I Fall tells Gloria's story, a story about growing up feeling different and not fitting in... With this new work, Dowie continues her ground-breaking subversion of gender expectations and stereotypes.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in August 2019.

I'm his mother. A mother knows things - feels them. When her child isn't well. Isn't happy.The kitchen of a suburban house. A mother and daughter raise a child in the most normal way possible following the departure of a family member.Tensions rise as the pair skirt around issues that underpin their co-dependency, proving that what goes on inside a relationship is never clear to the people outside.This searing new play by award-winning writer Hannah Khalil is published in Methuen Drama's Lost Plays series, celebrating new plays that had productions postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the global shutdown of theatre spaces.

Think how many others there are like me, hiding in the shadows, operating in the night like foxes, for fear of rejection and a life of ridicule. I've worked too hard to gain my respect only for it to be taken from me because of something I can't control.Foxes follows Daniel, a young black man trying to keep up with his life, which is moving fast. When his relationship with best friend Leon brings an unexpected change it creates turmoil, bringing a taboo into his family home that has the power to tear the closest and most loving relationships apart.Shortlisted for the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award, Dexter Flanders's debut play Foxes explores masculinity and identity within London's Caribbean community and Black street culture.This powerful play is published in Methuen Drama's Lost Plays series, celebrating new plays that had productions postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the global shutdown of theatre spaces.

Me jumping out of the van, was the beginning of a very bad day for me. I just didn't know it, but I was going to know it, in about four minutes, I was going to know, fer trut.2020. Delroy is arrested on his way to the hospital.Filled with anger and grief, he recalls the moments and relationships that gave him hope before his life was irrevocably changed.Written in response to their play Death of England, Death of England: Delroy is a new standalone work by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams, which follows a Black working-class man searching for truth and confronting his relationship withWhite Britain.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere of Death of England: Delroy, at the National Theatre in 2020. The production was the first play to reopen the theatre following the Coronavirus pandemic.

How important is touch to you? Is there enough touch in the world or are we experiencing collective 'touch hunger' in these troubling times?Touchstone Tales is a unique collection of revealing and illuminating stories of Lutonians, seen through the prism of touch. Originally a Revoluton Arts/Wellcome collection co-commission, it is part of Wellcome's national arts partnership programme and is an artist response to 'The Touch Test', Wellcome's study on the role that touch plays in the lives and well-being of people. Pholi, a Sikh widow in isolation reminisces about Romancing in Bury Park in the 60s and delights in the children of her Polish neighbours. Hamza aka Desi cake lover awaits his Amazon parcels hoping that the arrival of 'rose petals' for his Persian love cake will help him find love in lockdown, The Ninja Sister inspires Sophia out of her shell and gives her the gift of confidence and faith in God, through sparring with the 'sisters' at Pink Diamond martial arts Club and in The Eid Hug, Anwar searches for his father's full embrace, even in middle age. Farid and Manju celebrate their inter-faith friendship through iconic song and stories of lost loves and youth in The Fairy Queen, Nazira shares her buried secret in And the world kept turning, and offers touch through performing the last rites for others, a particularly humbling experience during Covid 19 and Atif in Paisley and Roses helps customers to adorn themselves in silks and shawls and realises that it is his absent mother's touch that he is longing for in her fineries. Written by award-winning author Sudha Bhuchar, the play explores the theme of touch through a collection of fictional self-portrait monologues and a dualogue, directly inspired by creative encounters with mainly the British Muslim South Asian communities in Bury Park, Luton.

'Art's my hobby too.' Hobby?!Sasha was destined to take the art world by storm. At the age of fifteen pop stars wanted his paintings, and a new exhibition was going to make him a rich man.But now he serves in a stationers, and no one's even heard of him. what went wrong?Philip Ridley's darkly comic new play is about art, family, memory, and being haunted by the life we never lived.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere performance at London's Southwark Playhouse, which was performed live and live-streamed around the world in November 2020.

Good evening, I'm Inspector Carter. Take my case. This must be Charles Haversham! I'm sorry, this must've given you all a damn shock.The original version of the global hit play created by Mischief.After benefiting from a large and sudden inheritance, the inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society embark on producing an ambitious 1920s murder mystery. Hilarious disaster ensues and the cast start to crack under the pressure. Can they get the production back on track before the final curtain falls?This one-act version of Mischief's world famous The Play That Goes Wrong originally premiered at the Old Red LionTheatre in London in 2012. Since then, the expanded two-act version has taken the world by storm and has been performed in over 35 countries across 5 continents, winning multiple awards including the WhatsOnStage and Olivier Award for Best New Comedy plus a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play.This edition features the original one-act edition of the play that's perfect to be enjoyed on the page as well as inperformance. A true global phenomenon, it is guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter.

"Club toilets have taught me more about sisterhood than any book."Cornered into a flooding toilet cubicle and determined not to be rescued again, Rosie distracts herself with memories of bathroom encounters. Drunken heart-to-hearts by dirty sinks, friendships forged in front of crowded mirrors, and hiding together from trouble.But with her panic rising and no help on its way, can she keep her head above water?From internationally acclaimed writer and one of the UK's most prominent trans voices, Travis Alabanza (Burgerz), comes a hilarious and devastating tour of women's bathrooms, who is allowed in and who is kept out. This edition was published to coincide with its premiere at the Bush Theatre, London in December 2020. The production was the first play to reopen the theatre following the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's Midsummer Night - no time for dreaming. Because sometimes, when there's more than one reality at play, too much dreaming can make the walls between them come tumbling down.Unfortunately there's usually a damned good reason for there being walls between them in the first place - to keep things out. Things who want to make mischief and play havoc with the natural order.Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven of witches are up against real elves. And they're spectacularly nasty creatures. Even in a world of dwarves, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers - and the odd orang-utan - this is going to cause trouble.Adapted by Terry Pratchett's long-time collaborator Stephen Briggs, this play text version of Pratchett's bestselling Discworld novel Lords and Ladies wittily and faithfully reimagines the story for the stage.

Based loosely on The Science of Discworld II: the Globe, Lords & Ladies, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Shakespeare Codex is a new Discworld stage adaptation written to commemorate Terry Pratchett's life and works.Discworld's motley band of characters team up and stop the elves taking over our world, make Shakespeare write A Midsummer Night's Dream ... and ensure the potato is discovered! Featuring Ridcully, Rincewind, Granny Weatherwax, Angua, Vetinari, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I (and the Earl of Oxford), this is an unmissable new adventure for Discworld fans.