National Theatre Connections 2021: Two Plays for Young People

Miriam Battye

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781350233492
• eBook ISBN: 9781350233515
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections
Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights, National Theatre Connections 2021 features work by brilliant artists. 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.
This 2021 edition is intended as a companion to the 2020 anthology, which together represent the full set of 10 plays offered by the National Theatre 2021 Festival. The two plays included in this collection are Find a Partner by Miriam Battye and Like There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz Mytton. The anthology contains two play scripts, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that will give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

There are strange cracks appearing in the land on the other side of the world, turning habitats into wastelands and creating a new wave of climate refugees. However, no one’s worrying about that here – where a mayoral candidate is promising more, more, more. New industries, new jobs, new homes and masses of new stuff – all of it achieved by expansive and rapid economic growth. It’s what the people want. Apart from Maru that is, whose asthma is really bad because the air is already thick with pollution, and their mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle is falling on deaf ears. Their only sanctuary is the local park. Lush and green, it’s where Maru can reconnect, recharge and breathe.

However, as plans emerge to build on the park, and Maru’s parents appear to be seduced by the mayoral candidate’s invitation to consume as much as you can, something has to give. So, when a crack appears in Maru’s new state-of-the-art bedroom furniture and then it spreads to the centre of town, and Maru seems to be the culprit, it’s enough to focus everyone’s attention – as they seek to deal with the symptom, whilst remaining oblivious of the cause.

Like There’s No Tomorrow was created with the Belgrade Young Company, through a process of discussion, research, improvisation, scripting and revision. They first performed this play on 9 March 2020.

Cast size

10–16
plus additional ensemble members

There are eight named characters in the play, and a minimum of two additional company members are required to cover the chorus roles – making a minimum company of ten.

The number of company members playing chorus roles could be increased to eight – making a maximum company of sixteen with reasonable speaking roles. There is also the possibility of including a further eight to twelve company members in non-(or little-)speaking roles, delivering the movement sequences in the city, the scene changes and the bringing to life of the folk tale in Scene Three.

Like There’s No Tomorrow was first presented by the Belgrade Young Company at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, on 9 March 2020, with the following cast:

Maru	Oluwasemilore Kaji-Hausa
Fin	Femi Themen
Asha	Seyi Olomolaiye
Bobby Brunt	Sachin Sharma
Mum	Ifeolu Olomolaiye
Dad	Tillman Osici
Luca	Emma Gibson
Georgie	Georgie Gibson
Campaigner/Neighbour	Jess Lake
Elder/Journalist	Kimberley Musa
Student/Fly-Tipper	Luqman Mwalim
Campaigner/Fin’s Mum	Yolande Thompson

All other parts were played by members of the Company

Director/Devising Facilitator Justine Themen

Co-Director/Devising Facilitator Claire Procter

Assistant Directors Jules Chan, Sebbie Mudhai

Dramaturg Ola Animashawun

Wordsmith Liz Mytton

Songsmith Unamay Olomolaiye

Designer Janet Vaughan

Lighting Designer Adam Warren

Sound Designer Oliver Howard

Justine Themen (Devising Facilitator/Co-Director) is a theatre director and change-maker. She is currently Deputy Artistic Director of the Belgrade Theatre and Co-Artistic Director for its City of Culture 2021 programme. During her time at the Belgrade, she has built a small participatory programme into a broad-reaching ethos across the work of the building. The programme provides access to arts activity to some of the city’s least arts-engaged communities, shapes talent development opportunities that strongly promote diversity across the sector and creates new work for the theatre’s stages. Her co-created work includes Rise (Belgrade Young Company), Walk for Your Life (Belgrade Black Youth Theatre), Hussan and Harry (Belgrad...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• National Theatre Connections by Kirsten Adam
• Introduction by Ola Animashawun
• Find a Partner! by Miriam Battye
• Production Notes
• Like There’s No Tomorrow created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz Mytton
• Production Notes
• Participating Companies
• Partner Theatres
• Performing Rights
• National Theatre Connections Team
• Copyright