Simon Longman

Kate, Sam and Pete are stuck. The town they live in doesn't have much going on. But they don't really care about that when they've got cheap cider and their whole lives ahead of them. And they're going to break away anyway. Someone's about to get a car. And all roads go somewhere else. Right? Island Town is bittersweet story about friendship, hope and dreams of an escape. Written by Simon Longman, recipient of the 2018 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (Gundog; Royal Court).

Island Town

“Land beneath our feet. Got all our blood inside it hasn't it? All that time. Belongs to us.” On a farm in the middle of nowhere, sisters Becky and Anna try to hold their family together after the death of their mother. Time is always moving somewhere – but here it's very quiet. When they discover a stranger wandering aimlessly across the land, the three establish an unlikely partnership in their determination to survive. Simon Longman's Royal Court debut premiered at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2018.

Gundog

Leo Butler

Jordan Tannahill

Ed Harris

Lisa McGee

Shamser Sinha

Alison Carr

Jon Brittain

Molly Taylor

Avaes Mohammad

National Theatre Connections 2023 draws together ten 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 the 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. Touching on themes like climate change, politics, toxic masculinity and gang culture, the collection provides topical, pressing subject matter for students to explore in their performance. This 2023 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2023 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

10 Plays for Young Performers

National Theatre Connections 2023

Anyway. I was just wondering if you had any jobs at all? . . . Yeah . . . like . . . media. Something to do with media stuff . . . Where am I based? Well, currently Herefordshire but . . . sorry . . . that's too far away . . . too far away from what? . . . Oh . . . ok. Paul is trying to find a job. Snowy is trying to find himself. But when Snowy stumbles across an ailing cow stuck in a local field, he ropes Paul into trying to help the cow, either to improve its lot or put it out of its misery. What follows is a hilarious procession of failed suffocations, experiments with a saw and trip to the train tracks in this funny and moving black comedy about friendship, unemployment and a cow called Sandy. Milked premiered in a production by Pentabus Theatre Company in November 2013. This edition is published to coincide with the revival and national tour, beginning February 2015.

Milked

Remember you saying you could speak to anything if you wanted to. Right? Did you say that? Remember that. Said you could speak to the stars. Just had to know how to do it. It's raining in the Midlands. Again. It won't stop. Someone's standing in it. They're shivering. They're cold. They're waiting for someone they haven't seen in a very long time. They've got a rucksack full of alcohol. And a fish. A touching play about abandoned responsibilities, what we choose to remember and what we thought we'd forgotten. This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Old Red Lion theatre, London on 10 November 2015.

Simon Longman

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