NT Connections Festival 2026 Day 2

Macbeth,Macbeth,Macbeth,Macbeth,Macbeth.

When an alarm is deliberately set off during their GCSE drama exam, a group of students find themselves in detention. As they struggle to navigate the seemingly endless tasks they’ve been set as punishment, questions are raised. Who set off the alarm and why? Will they ever get out of this detention? Will it cost them their GCSE? And why is Shakespeare still so popular?

So begins a meta deconstruction of the play as we move from classroom to theatre, artifice to reality. The performers switch between their characters and their real selves as they interrogate Shakespeare, the canon, the education system, the nature of theatre, and the world itself. They begin to wonder whether the classics really are that classic, or whether we might need to tell a different story altogether….

The Animals

Student teacher Sam arrives at Redhill Youth Custody Secure Unit hoping to enrich the troubled resident’s lives there by introducing them to the subject of Philosophy. The wary class resist engaging in this alien, ancient art of thinking, at first, but start to thaw when they find themselves being challenged and empowered in ways they haven’t previously experienced. Yet the hope Sam’s teaching offers them is fragile, particularly for hard fronting Gee, who’s on the verge of being released from the unit and is secretly terrified at this prospect.

There will be an interval between the two performances.