'When I walk into a room, in my uniform. There is a look that gets thrown my way. When I walk into a room, in my uniform. It's as if for second everything stops.'Jane and Toni are immaculate, iconic, accommodating flight attendants. They're here for your safety, your comfort and your pleasure. Or so you think. But 30,000 feet below them their seemingly perfect lives are rapidly unravelling.In the sky, over the sea and in cheap hotel rooms around the world, they can...

'Who said smashing things up was a bad thing?'Three strangers are about to face their demons head on. Balanced precariously on the tipping point, they might just be able to save one another – if they can only overcome their urge to self-destruct.Passionate, painful and playful, Stef Smith's Swallow takes a long, hard look at the extremes of everyday life. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, ...

A young woman finds herself washed up back home on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney, trying to rebuild her life after a decade of addiction.The life she has left behind in London, with all its intoxicating temptations, has pushed her to the point of destruction. Now there is wildness of a different form – an alluring wilderness that she must learn to navigate.Speaking to the impact of isolation and loneliness and – ultimately – the resilience of people, Amy Liptrot's best...

'You've lies in the whites of your eyes, Nora. What have you done…?'Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything.Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This ...

In the overcrowded city, nature is getting out of control. The mice are scratching between walls, the pigeons are diseased and the foxes are beginning to rule the streets. The problem is growing. It's contagious. It has to be stopped, before it's too late.Stef Smith's play Human Animals premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 2016, in a production directed by Hamish Pirie.

Antler steps out of her front door and throws her phone to the ground. She stamps on it. Then she climbs the tallest tree in the park. She doesn't want to be found, not by anyone.Over the course of one autumnal evening, seven teenagers' lives intertwine as they make their way through the park. And everything that seemed normal becomes extraordinary.A play about protest, power and protecting yourself, Stef Smith's Remote was commissioned as part of the 2015 National...

'Do you want to live forever?YES or NO.'Polly and Owen have nailed it. Successful in their careers and wildly in love with each other, they feel ready to take on the world.But when a mysterious new technology, promising a break from the daily grind, creeps into everyone's phones, their world is turned upside down. As the line between physical and digital rapidly dissipates, Polly and Owen are forced to question whether their definitions of reality a...

It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections.National Theatre Connections 2022 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK's most exciting playwrights. 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.

Five exciting new plays for young people written specifically in response to a world in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a handbook from Wonder Fools theatre company with guidance for staging the plays either online or live in the space.Commissioned as part of Wonder Fools' national participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times, these five plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 8-25. These original and innovative plays are:

Greer O’Reilly needs to start over. Her partner of twelve years has left her and she’s moved to a blueberry orchard in the Victorian hills. When she and daughter Sophie arrive to take possession, the former owner, 81-year-old jazz lover Charlie Chandler, refuses to move out. Dying and desperate to spend his last days in his old home, the unlikely pair soon form a close bond – one that will offer the strength and inspiration Greer needs.

Stella and her mother-in-law Margie are two very different women. Stella is kind, compassionate and a little chaotic. Margie is prickly and demanding, with bitter memories of the past. When Margie needs help recovering from a major operation, she reluctantly returns to the family farm where for decades, until Stella’s arrival, she was the one in charge. But two women gradually form an unlikely bond, as the ambitions, secrets, and tragedies that have shaped their lives are slowly uncovered....

When Brianna Donahue was three years old, her mother mysteriously disappeared while farming in Merriwell Bay, Western Australia. Now she works the same land while almost single-handedly raising her two children, and when her son goes missing she is forced to face the fact her marriage has huge cracks in it. Meanwhile, over two thousand kilometres away in South Australia, Detective Dave Burrows sets off on an investigation that will impact Brianna’s world and test her relationships with tho...