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 Y...

An outrageous Brechtian parable that explores the lines we draw between ourselves and other people.The clock moves towards midnight. Life is about to be turned upside down for one small town as the border crossing is sealed shut, dividing here from there, us from them, this from that. In the midst of it all, Stranger, a young girl's beloved dog, has gone missing. Will Stranger be found before the border closes, or will he be trapped forever on the “wrong” side?

Set in a world where how British you are is determined by the state, three women have been called in for interview. Sara looks kind of Asian. Scheherazade kind of Middle Eastern. And Sarah is kind of white and has no idea why she's here. She also keeps bursting into song.

The Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Women’s Book Club is not content simply to read and discuss books. Their process is a little more involved. They once kidnapped Irving Layton and took him for an excursion up a mountain. They attempted to recreate a scene of a nun swinging from a bridge-builder's broken arm in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion. But when they begin to re-enact the Epic of Gilgamesh, in the early days of the Iraq War, the book begins to enact them inst...

It’s Sara Kingston's eighteenth birthday and instead of feeling excited she’s consumed with dread. Two years ago, earth was taken over by the Erostrians. And today they come for her.To keep the alien race alive, the rulers have decreed that every human woman be mated to an Erostrian on her eighteenth birthday.Sara has been preparing for this day for months. But there’s one thing she didn’t anticipate…There’s only one person who can help when Sara’s escape plans go a...

Lynda Bellingham died in her husband Michael's arms on 19th October 2014. Lynda touched many lives in her memoir, There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You, and in My Lynda, Michael tells his side of the story. He talks movingly about their ten years together and describes how, in the past year, he has struggled to cope. He shares candidly his experience of grief, offering hope and support to others who have lost partners and loved ones. His is a book to comfort those who loved Lynda, ...

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary, Sarah Harland is nineteen, and she is in prison. At the airport, they find heroin in her bag. So, now she is waiting to go to court. If the court decides that it was her heroin, then she must die. She says she did not do it. But if she did not, who did? Only two people can help Sarah: her mother, and an old boyfriend who does not love her now. Can they work together? Can they find the real cri...

What if the new love of your life also holds the keys to your past?When Chicago journalist Tom Welsh meets British banker Sanders Templeton at a conference, Sanders insists they have a connection, though he does not know what it is. They’ve never met before—but the strangest thing is, Tom can also feel it.Sanders Templeton is a highflier who has it all—the money, the lifestyle and a rare intellect. Only a few chosen people know that he also suffers excruciating pai...

Diana, Princess of Wales is one of the most recognisable figures in history. However how much do you really know about the woman who stole a nation’s heart? This quick-read eBook gives you all the information you need in easy to digest sections which cover her life from a young child through her ill-fated marriage and subsequent divorce, her relationships, charity work plus much more. Find out everything there is to know about the people’s princess whose life was tragically cut short.

Synopsis Once upon a time a male and a female were united in one body sharing one mind and one soul, but having two hearts which beat exactly in sync. When mankind sinned, the destiny for them was to be separated forever. And so with the wave of a hand, one became two. Loneliness was born that day on the earth. For countless lifetimes each searches for the one to whom they belonged, but only rarely does one find their lost soulmate. Only rarely do two ever truly become one.

Five years ago, Evan lost almost everything. Now he rents his house out to a bunch of vulnerable, wonderful kids, and, with the help of his best mate, Cam, he tries to find a meaning to his life through helping them. The arrival of the latest naive young refugee from a homophobic family could be a disruption or a blessing. Is he finally ready to move on from his grief?

Some people might think it’s odd when a teenage boy starts making movies of his classmates kissing. But in A PLACE TO LIVE, the aspiring filmmaker’s project turns into a compelling protest against authoritarianism that could get him kicked out of school, and expose his surprising feelings for his best friend.