PRESS RELEASE
Young actors from Scotland and the Isle of Man to perform at Pitlochry Festival Theatre for prestigious National Theatre Connections Festival 2025
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is thrilled to announce that for the third year running it has been selected as one of two theatres in Scotland to host the National Theatre’s prestigious Connections Festival, which will showcase the best of exciting young acting talent from seven theatre groups from around the country and from the Isle of Man.
From 10-12 April, Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Studio will host Spotlights Community Youth Theatre from Forfar, Crieff High School, Aberdeen based Oldmachar Academy, Open Door Drama Youth from the Shetland Islands, East Lothian based The Mill Youth Theatre, Kensington Arts from the Isle of Man, and Pitlochry Festival Theatre Young Company as they perform the Scottish premières of the plays, Fresh Air by Vickie Donoghue; YOU 2.0 by Alys Metcalf; Mia and the Fish by Satinder Chohan; No Regrets by Gary McNair (Dear Billy, National Theatre of Scotland); Brain Play by Chloë Lawrence-Taylor and Paul Sirett; Ravers by Rikki Beadle-Blair; and Saba’s Swim by Danusia Samal.
Now in its 30th year, Connections 2025 draws together ten new plays from some of the UK’s most talented and popular playwrights, for young people aged between 13 and 19, to perform. These are plays for a new generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions, and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. This year the National Theatre will be working alongside 33 Partner Theatres and over 250 youth theatre companies from every corner of the UK.
The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Young people also have the opportunity to engage in all aspects of the theatre making process both on and off stage, including costume, lighting and set design, and learn about the many skills and roles involved in theatre.
Previous Connections playwrights have included Liz Lochhead, Mark Ravenhill, Anthony Neilson, David Mamet, Bryony Lavery, Lenny Henry, James Graham, and Cush Jumbo.
Several performers have appeared at the festival and gone onto being professional actors including the Oscar nominated Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice, The Imitation Game and Pirates of the Caribbean), John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi), Dylan Llewllyn (Derry Girls and Big Boys), Callum Scott Howells (It’s A Sin) and David Oyelowo (Selma and Silo) who appeared in the very first Connections in 1995.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre Associate Director Sam Hardie said:
“We are thrilled to be welcoming seven youth theatre companies to perform at the NT Connections Festival at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this spring. It’s our third year hosting this amazing nationwide festival and we are delighted to say it’s our biggest year yet, welcoming young companies from across Scotland, the Isle of Man, and our very own Pitlochry Festival Theatre Young Company. The festival champions young people and celebrates their brilliant work which will be showcased in our Studio theatre. We are very excited for the festival and know it will be a highlight of our year! “
Kirsten Adam, Head of Young People’s Programmes at the National Theatre, said,
“We are delighted to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of National Theatre Connections with Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Over 125,000 young people have taken part in this nationwide youth theatre festival over the past three decades, staging and performing new plays across the breadth of the UK. We can’t wait to witness the talent and creativity that these seven groups will bring both on and off stage this April”.
The NT Connections Festival takes place at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 10 – 12 April. Tickets are available from the Pitlochry Festival Theatre box office on 01796 484626 or online at pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
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NOTES TO EDITORS
TICKETS
Tickets: All tickets are priced at £5 for the whole evening. A limited number of free tickets will be made available for some young people.
Box Office and group bookings: 01796 484626
email boxoffice@pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
Website: www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
LISTINGS
Thursday 10 April at 7pm – Studio
YOUTH COMPANY: Spotlights, Forfar
PLAY: Fresh Air by Vickie Donaghue
Students from a Pupil Referral group are made to go orienteering in what they discover are England’s most haunted woods. Stalked by eery ghost children determined to keep them there forever, they must learn to confront the here and now to unlock the key to their futures.
Suggested age suitability: 14+
YOUTH COMPANY: Crieff High School, Crieff
PLAY: YOU 2.0 by Alys Metcalf
Strangers Martha and Isaac find themselves forced into playing YOU 2.0, a new therapy video game designed to help players access their better selves. As they tackle the levels in two player mode, the pair form an unlikely friendship behind the anonymity of their gaming avatars, but their impact on each other’s lives goes much deeper than the game.
Suggested age suitability: 13+
Friday 11 April at 6.45pm – Studio
YOUTH COMPANY: Open Door Drama Youth, Shetland
PLAY: Mia and the Fish by Satinder Chohan
A modern retelling of the ancient Indian myth Manu and the Fish. Mia is a young refugee girl who along with her sister is washed up onto the shores of the UK. Against the backdrop of a freak winter heatwave, as the climate emergency becomes critical, one day Mia happens upon and nurtures a talking fish, that she names, Samaki. As well as becoming Mia’s friend and confidante, Samaki quickly grows and becomes a giant fish, larger than any marine animal the world has ever known and the key to her and her friends’ survival in the face of the imminent extinction of humanity.
Suggested age suitability: 13+
YOUTH GROUP: Pitlochry Festival Theatre Young Company
PLAY: No Regrets by Gary McNair (Dear Billy, National Theatre of Scotland)
Over the course of five years, Glasgow playwright Gary McNair spoke to people at all stages and in all walks of life on the subject of regret. This play marks the results of those conversations. A collection of scenes from the silly to the profound, that charts our relationship with the things we should have done but didn’t and the things we shouldn’t have done but did.
Suggested age suitability: 14+
YOUTH GROUP: Oldmachar Academy, Aberdeen
PLAY: Brain Play by Chloë Lawrence-Taylor and Paul Sirett
When Mia’s dad suffers a traumatic brain injury and struggles to leave the house, she makes it her mission to find the cure for his symptoms. Delving deeper and deeper into the world of neuroscience, Mia is desperate to make him better, but first she must contend with her own brain.
Suggested age suitability: 13+
Saturday 12 April at 7pm
YOUTH GROUP: Kensington Arts, Isle of Man
PLAY: Ravers by Rikki Beadle-Blair
A rag tag group of self-described ‘neeks’ (nerds and geeks) gather at midnight in a local park, to hold a ‘dry rave.’ (no intoxicants). Will they succeed in redefining ‘cool’? Or will the powers that be succeed in shutting down the neek revolution?
Suggested age suitability: 14+
YOUTH GROUP: The Mill Youth Theatre, East Lothian
PLAY: Saba’s Swim by Danusia Samal
Seven months ago, Saba walked out of her GCSE mocks and didn’t come back. Her friends don’t understand why. Now, on prom night, Saba’s finally made contact, challenging her friends to track her down via a series of cryptic clues. But when the friends are finally reunited, Saba is different. The way she sees the world has changed. And what she’s asking of her friends… is it more than they can give?
Suggested age suitability: 15+
2025 Connections Festival full list of plays are:
Mia and the Fish by Satinder Chohan
The Company of Trees by Jane Bodie
Ravers by Rikki Beadle-Blair
YOU 2.0 by Alys Metcalf
Fresh Air by Vickie Donoghue
No Regrets by Gary McNair
Their Name is Joy by May Sumbwanyambe
Normalised by Amanda Verlaque
Saba’s Swim by Danusia Samal
Brain Play by Chloë Lawrence-Taylor and Paul Sirett
About the National Theatre
The National Theatre makes theatre that entertains and inspires using its creativity, expertise, and unique reach. The National Theatre shares unforgettable stories with millions of audience members across the UK and around the world – on its own stages, on tour, in schools, on cinema screens and streaming at home.
World-leading artists make their best work at the National Theatre with the widest possible audience and impact. The National Theatre invests in talent and innovation on stage and off, taking seriously its role as the nation’s theatre. Of the new productions developed each year with a wide range of theatre companies, a third of that research and development resource is dedicated to shows staged at theatres outside London.
Through touring our work to local theatres and schools and nationwide education and community programmes, we are active in every local authority in the UK. A registered charity with deeply embedded social purpose, the National Theatre works with hundreds of schools and communities across the UK to fire imagination and inspire creativity, and to develop skills and pathways for careers in theatre.
For more information, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk
Pitlochry Festival Theatre. A Theatre for Everyone. A Theatre for a Lifetime.
Since 1951, Pitlochry Festival Theatre has been the artistic heart and soul of Highland Perthshire. Attracting over 100,000 visitors every year, we’re more than simply a place to come and see a show – we’re Scotland’s leading producer of musical theatre, a champion of ensemble practice and the country’s only rurally-located, major arts organisation. Our purpose is to improve lives by sharing Pitlochry with the world and the world with Pitlochry. Our aim is to create life-enhancing experiences in our Theatre and its glorious eleven-acre campus that encompasses the magical Explorers Garden. In everything we do, we are committed to nurturing an exciting creative and cultural future for Scotland.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is a charity supported by funding from Creative Scotland and Perth & Kinross Council. It is also grateful to the many individual donors, and trusts and foundations who support us; without their generosity we could not continue to produce exceptional theatre.
Address: Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Port Na Craig, Pitlochry, Perthshire PH16 5DR
Box Office and group bookings: boxoffice@pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
Website: pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is a registered Scottish Charity. No SC013055
Pitlochry Festival Theatre gratefully acknowledges support from:
