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Features ten plays, which have been selected from the BT National Connections scheme, in which some contemporary playwrights in the UK and Europe were commissioned by the Royal National Theatre to produce original drama specifically for young people. The scripts are specifically written for 11-16+.

Melissa wants to get on with her life but never knows when her father is going to turn up next. Over thirty years she struggles to overcome her past while her family, torn apart by alcohol, try to repair the damage. Nick Payne's play about history and hope is a poignant, unflinching reflection on the ties that bind us.

I am scared, that once this war is over, and I am sent home, that you won't be here. That you will have left.Leonard and Violet, young, restless and in love, spend their first night together knowing it may also be their last. It's 1942 and, in a hotel room in Bath, they dream of their future while preparing for Leonard's departure to the war. But the bombs begin to fall and their world will never be the same again. In the year 2002, the couple look back at what might have been.Examining the impact of the Second World War on two ordinary lives and a love that spans more than sixty years.

As Stella leaves her job at the shopping channel, Alex prepares for a night out, and Paula can’t stop thinking of the girl who’s gone missing, her face all over the news. Slowly the missing girl weaves her way through all their lives in the course of a very wet and wild night.

Hansard; nounThe official report of all parliamentary debates. Hansard is an intimate domestic drama about a long and troubled marriage. It is also a comedy about politics and identity and the failings of the ruling class. Set around the passing of the Section 28 legislation in 1988, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality.It is funny, tender, brutal, and ultimately devastating. Hansard premiered at the National Theatre, London,in August 2019.

“Are me feet off the floor yet? Are me feet off the floor?” In a rainy town in the north of England, there are strange goings-on. Dad is building a pair of wings, eating flies, and feathering his nest. Auntie Doreen is getting cross and making dumplings. Mr Poop is parading the streets, shouting louder and louder, and even Mr Mint, the head teacher, is getting in a flap. And watching it all is Lizzie, missing her mam and looking after her dad and thinking how beautiful the birds are. What’s behind it all? It’s the Great Human Bird Competition, of course. Who will be the first to fly across the River Tyne?David Almond’s barmy, tender and funny tale about wings and faith, written for the Young Vic to accompany their production of Skellig. It has since been performed many times around the world, and also adapted by Almond into a much-loved, much-translated novel, with illustrations by Polly Dunbar.

Man, bird or angel? Who, or what, is Skellig?Michael was looking forward to moving house. It was all going to be wonderful. But now his baby sister’s ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. What is this thing beneath the spider webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only person Michael can confide in is Mina. Together they carry the creature into the light, and Michael’s world changes for ever.David Almond’s own adaptation of his renowned novel, winner of The Carnegie Medal, The Whitbread Children’s Book Award, and a string of prizes around the world. A timeless classic, published in over 40 languages, it touches the minds, hearts and souls of people of all ages. The story has become a movie, an opera, a radio play and this stage play, first produced at the Young Vic, and directed by Trevor Nunn.

“We come into the world out of the dark. We haven’t got a clue where we’ve come from. We’ve got no idea where we’re going. But while we’re here in the world, if we’re brave enough, we’ll flap our wings and fly.” It’s easy. Running away from the children’s home, Whitegates. Erin and January do it all the time. But this time they’re going away downriver on a raft. They have their friend, Mouse, with them. Now they’re stranded in the night on the lethal Black Middens. They climb up onto an ancient quay. How could they imagine that they’d discover a girl called Heaven Eyes? Heaven Eyes, a girl who should have drowned at sea, a girl living her with her strange and dangerous Grampa. A girl with a secret history that only Grampa knows, and he isn’t telling. A tale of courage and adventure, and of the search for happiness and family.David Almond’s own adaptation of his acclaimed novel, shortlisted for The Carnegie Medal, and published in translation around the world.

When E meets the man of her dreams, a professional cyclist, love hits her in the pubic bone like a train. For a brief period she is high on life – he’s the answer to her crippling loneliness, her self-harm issues, her non-existent career. But when the cyclist cheats on her and ends the relationship E plummets into a black hole of heartbreak. She turns to her only friend – mustard.

Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this unforgettable play about life after loss.

England, 1820: The isolated town of Sleepy Hollow is disrupted by the arrival of a new schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, who challenges the town's superstitions with science, reason and fact. The locals instantly mistrust him; but Katrina van Fleet, heiress to Sleepy Hollow's rich land is charmed by his intellect and passion. But Ichabod is mistaken: as behind each one of the villagers' tales lies a dark and bloody truth. As the spirits of the Hollow Wood grow restless, and as the hooves of the Headless Horseman thunder ever nearer, Katrina is forced to make a choice that will change the fate of Sleepy Hollow forever.Based on Washington Irving's infamous short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a powerful and atmospheric musical by Helen Watts and Eamonn O'Dwyer. It is a story of community; a story of faith, of blood and belief; a story that asks the simple question: what happens when good people make bad choices?

Elspeth and Arthur are celebrating forty years of quiet, safe, unspectacular, ordinary marriage. Or so most of the guests attending their anniversary party are led to believe. But knowing her and knowing him as they do, their son and daughter know differently.

“As with the commander of an army, so is it with the mistress of a house”. Isabella Beeton was only twenty three years old when she penned these words in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, first published in 1861. She could not have predicted how they would resonate with the women of England, nor could she have imagined how her name would become synonymous with culinary expertise and domestic bliss for generations to come.Mrs Beeton Says… is a charming and vibrant musical examining the life and legacy of this extraordinary woman: a spirited journalist, a tireless entrepreneur, and if not a perfect homemaker, then certainly a queen of organization. In a world where a woman could not vote, own a house, nor even ride a bicycle, Mrs Beeton’s book gave the women of England something they desperately wanted: a bit of control.

It is 1934. Winsome Manor is in financial difficulties and, with a heavy heart, the widowed Lady Winsome needs to fire long-standing servants Joe the gardener and James the chauffeur. However, unbeknown to Lady Winsome, James has been using the estate's Rolls Royce for a taxi business and Joe has been profiting from the garden produce.

Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies.

Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies.

Robert Caplan and his wife are entertaining her brother and sister-in-law. Because Robert insists on uncovering the truth about his brother Martin's 'suicide', many unpalatable revelations ensue which cause Robert to shoot himself. At this point, the opening scene is repeated, but this time they bypass the dangerous corner at which the truth is demanded, thus averting the disaster. Written in 1932 this forms one of the three 'time plays'.

In Here We Go, Churchill confronts the topic of aging and death, told in 3 separate sections.

Caryl Churchill's Pigs and Dogs is substantially based on material from Boy Wives and Female Husbands by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe. It premiered at the Royal Court in 2016.

Catherine has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, Robert. When he dies she has more than grief to deal with: there’s her estranged sister, Claire, and Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that Robert left behind. And a further problem: how much of her father’s madness – or genius – will Catherine inherit?Gwyneth Paltrow starred in this Pultizer Prize-winning play which opened at the Donmar Warehouse in 2001.

Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.