NT Connections Festival: Brain Play / No Regrets

Full Description

Apollo Theatre Arts and The Gulbenkian Youth Theatre perform in Day 7 of our 2025 Connections Festival, the National Theatre’s annual, nationwide celebration of new writing. 2025 is the Festival’s 30th year, and Trinity is proud to host 14 young companies in 2025 as part of its festival programme.

Schools and youth theatres across the country perform a new piece of writing developed for the programme at their home venues before visiting a festival theatre.

Each ticket gives you access to an evening of two one act plays, with a short interval in between. For all of our Connections 2025 performances, we are offering an option to buy tickets at a reduced price, full price or, if you are able to, a slightly higher price that helps subsidise our Creative Engagement work.

 

Apollo Theatre Arts presents
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+

Content warnings:
• Strong language.
• Discussion of brain injury and the associate affects.
• Discussion of anxiety, PTSD and mental health.
• References to blood.
• Discussion of hearing loss.
• References to agoraphobia.
• At one point a character says “take him out and shoot him”, in jest.

 

 

The Gulbenkian Youth Theatre presents
No Regrets
by Gary McNair

Over the course of five years, 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+

Content warnings:
• Strong language.
• Description of violence.
• Mention of alcohol and addiction.
• One scene of a mugging and stabbing.
• References to death.