The second night of NT Connections 2026 at Pitlochry Festival Theatre with a double-bill performance by Shazam Theatre Company (Aberdeen) and the Mill Youth Theatre (East Linton).

Britney’s Lock by Alexandra Wood
Performed by Shazam Theatre Company
When Ruby acquires a lock of Britney Spears’ hair as a relic to help her stay calm during her GCSE mocks, her friends dismiss it, but one by one they feel its power and want a piece of it, until it is destroyed. This funny play about how we cope in stressful situations, explores the power of belief and friendship.

Cloud Busting by Helen Blakeman (based on the novel by Malorie Blackman)
Performed by Mill Youth Theatre
When Sam wakes up, he fully believes that today will just be another ordinary day – but that’s before Mr Mackie tells Class 8M to write a poem about someone they care about. Unexpectedly, Sam volunteers to write about Davey… Davey was Sam’s friend – not that Sam wanted anyone to know that. While the cool girls in the class thought Davey was ‘well cute in a sad dog sort of way’, the tough boys – Morgan and his crew – just saw Davey as different. Davey liked to dance. Davey liked to look at the clouds and see the shapes they made. Davey liked looking at the world in a different way to everybody else. But no matter how much Sam liked being with Davey, he always denied their friendship. Then one day, the bullying goes a step too far… but will Sam step in to help his friend? It’s not the ordinary day Sam thought it was going to be.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre want everyone to enjoy their experience of NT Connections. With that in mind, they share the following content guidance about these plays which feature sexual references, themes of and references to anxiety, themes of bullying, onstage violence and references to poverty.

There will be a short interval between each performance at which point they will kindly ask you to leave the auditorium.