The Sad Club by Luke Barnes

Music by Adam Pleeth • Performed by Spotlights Community Youth Theatre

This is a musical about depression and anxiety. It’s a collection of monologues, songs and duologues from all over time and space exploring what about living in this world stops us from being happy and how we might go about tackling those problems.

Back in the Day by Yasmeen Khan

Performed by Denny High School Drama Club

A group of classmates are charged with the responsibility of being their school’s well-being champions. In a freak occurrence they are transported back to the ’80s via an impromptu and heavily improvised roller disco. Here they discover they’re not the only ones with skeletons in the cupboard, and there was more to the 80s than glitterballs and strange haircuts.

National Theatre Connections 2024 draws together ten new plays for young people – aged between 13 and 19 – to perform, from some of the UK’s most talented and popular 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. This year the National Theatre will be working with nearly 270 youth companies from all over the UK.

The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Touching on themes like trans-rights, the mental health crisis, colonial history, disability activism, and climate change, the collection provides topical, pressing subject matter for students to explore.