A play for young people from one of the most exciting playwrights around.

For the first time, there is an anthology of monologues for young people available, taken from plays commissioned as part of the National Theatre Connections over the past 20 years. Always drawing together the work of 10 leading playwrights – a mixture of established and current writers – the annual National Theatre Connections anthologies offer young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play is specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department and reflects the past year's programming at the venue in the plays' ideas, themes and styles. The plays are performed by approximately 200 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional regional theatres where the works are showcased. This anthology of 100 monologues is the ideal resource for teenagers and young people attending auditions either in the amateur or professional theatre world; students leaving secondary school to audition for drama school; as well as teachers of English and Drama looking for suitable dramatic for their students to engage with and perform. It provides suitable scene-study books that are suitable and relevant to the student in terms of tone, style and content. Young actors who have searched for audition material written in the voice of teenage characters will welcome this resource.

Gilbert Is Dead is a Victorian scientific mystery play: a clever, funny and moving portrait of grief, faith and science. The plot follows Lucius Trickett, London's most celebrated taxidermist, who finds himself in cahoots with Queen Victoria and our hero Gilbert Shirley, to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution with a stuffed specimen of the mysterious ghost loris. But what happens when the missing link goes missing? Robin French's distinctive, often surrealist voice characterised by historically intelligent, meticulously researched subjects and a precise, quirky sense of irony. Very clever, his writing presents an academic, yet accessible, labyrinth, toying with history, scientific theories and popular beliefs. He manages to experiment with form, style and theatrical metaphor whilst also staying firmly rooted in narratives which are engaging, affecting and provide astute social and human comment. The publication of this programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Hoxton Music Hall (4-29 December 2009), produced by the theatre company Shining Man.

2013 Critics Award Scotland Best Technical Presentation WINNER 2013 Critics Award Scotland Best Children and Young People's Show NOMINEE Sam McTannan is just a typical 15 year old, with one exception. Sam is a Superhero! He can literally turn See-Thru when it suits him, only today something is wrong.In Superhero comics they would call it a blip.Sam's powers are failing him and the people he doesn’t want to see him start paying a little bit too much attention. The story of an ordinary boy with an extraordinary life. A heartbreaking, life affirming comedy about life, love and being a total loser.

A doorway to a new future is ready to open. We are the hinge of that moment. We will let the door swing wide. On a beautiful spring evening – when both moons are full – two teenagers vow eternal love. It is a moment that will have cataclysmic consequences. Not just for them, but for the world on which they live. A world where Prom Night is a matter of life or death, where weapons are grown and trained like pets, and where a chosen few are hearing a voice. A voice that speaks of ... Karagula. Philip Ridley's extraordinary, form-shattering Karagula is a play of epic proportions. Written in a fractured timescale, it explores our constant need to find meaning. To believe we're here for a reason. To have faith in something. Faith in ... anything. Karagula received its world premiere on 10 June 2016 at a secret London location in one of the largest productions ever staged in the Off-West End.

What on earth is happening to our planet? And who knows what to do? Certainties are few: every living thing is related to every other living thing; our actions have consequences; change is continual and inevitable. The National Theatre asked four of the country's most exciting writers to investigate. The team spent six months interviewing key individuals from the worlds of science, politics, business and philosophy to create a fast-paced and provocative new play. Greenland premiered at the National Theatre, London, in February 2011.

Across the UK thousands of people are involved in protests and debates, sparked into action by the largest cuts to publicspending since WWII – cuts which are the turning point of a generation, undermining the welfare state, higher education and the arts in one fell swoop. Theatre Uncut is a national theatre event in response to these cuts, bringing together some of the UK’s leading dramatists. Drama groups, universities, youth clubs and theatre companies nationwide joined the event, staging their own versions of the shorts in a national theatrical uprising. Now published in this new collection, Theatre Uncut contains these short plays, addressing audiences who want to think about what the budget cuts really mean, and who they are really hitting. A debate is underway. Protest might begin, minds might be changed, views challenged, ideas formed. Theatre Uncut is a response to a situation that we cannot control, and over which we had no say. Click below to hear an interview with Libby Brodie and Hannah Price of Theatre Uncut: