Writers: May Sumbwanyambe / Danusia Samal
Directors: Kerry Menz / Zak Douglas, Katie Plant, and Megan Parker
Every year, National Theatre Connections commissions a fresh collection of plays written specifically for young performers, bringing together some of the UK’s most dynamic playwrights with a budding new generation of actors, directors, creatives and theatre-makers. The initiative engages over 250 youth theatre groups and more than 6,000 young people from across the UK.
The works are known for asking tough questions, challenging conventions, and testing traditional boundaries in a way that is inclusive, accessible, and relevant for teenagers. This year, ten brand-new productions take to the stage at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre, supported by the venue’s exceptional production resources.
Performed by the NGA Theatre Company from Nottingham Girls Academy, May Sumbwanyambe’s thought-provoking play, Their Name Is Joy, explores young people’s enduring ability to seek out and find human connections across boundaries of class and privilege. Danusia Samal’s Saba’s Swim, executed by an exceptional octet from the Central Youth Theatre in Wolverhampton, shines a light on how the loyalty of friends is challenged when one group member rejects conventional attitudes to school and growing up. Both pieces, although different in tone and content, address the challenges of coming of age.
Set in the summer of 2019, Their Name Is Joy is set on a bleak spring onion farm in rural Lincolnshire. In one field, camping out with sleeping bags and a tent, is Saunders (Abigirl-Gyamfi Ageiwaa’s magnificent snoring echoes around the auditorium) and their city-living, step-sibling Kelly (Celene Maddy delivers an excellent interpretation of a Nicki Minaj song). The siblings’ dodgy dad owns the farm.
Resting alongside them are young British workers, Jo (Joanna Kasongo), Max (Hafiza Ceesay) and Coxy (Edoghogho Ihunde), who earn some extra money by picking onions before returning to their studies. The quintet are friendly with each other but have been told not to have contact with a group of migrant workers huddled, hungry, around a fire in a field further away. The group have learnt to see the migrant workers as somehow different from them, some later even expressing attitudes that might be seen as racist.
Sumbwanyambe’s storyline switches between the British group and the migrant workers, Ali (Victoria Kamou), Noah (Victory Amaechi), Patience (Leona Arhin), and the younger duo Asher (Clara Safro) and Joy (Sheryl-Opoku Gyamfi), who are sorting through the farmer’s old clothes to find something warm to wear. A chance encounter brings Joy and Kelly together, bonding over games and biscuits. Initial distrust between the two groups warms into a search for shared understanding, helped by a mysterious (and tasty) truth serum. But how should the British group respond when they learn to think of the migrants as people, and come to understand their living conditions? The decision will have difficult consequences for everyone.
Saba’s Swim is set among a close-knit group of sixteen-year-olds getting ready for high-school GCSEs. Saba (Ace Jones cleverly communicates their character’s angry, rebellious, and conflicted nature) leads the group. Saba has been having bad dreams about swimming in a turbulent sea, unable to help those struggling around her. Directors Zak Douglas, Katie Plant, and Megan Parker deliver a beautifully choreographed scene in which waves of actors surround and engulf the girl, accompanied by the sound of wind and surf.
Faced by the pressure of exams and the growing feeling that the adults around her are lying, Saba begins to question everything she believes. She walks out of her mock exams, leaving her bereft friendship group wondering what happened. At one level, Saba’s Swim is a mystery, as friends Bea (Anya Sarpal shrewdly holds her character’s secret until the end), Obie (Joel Cockell Gwinnett), Jay (Amani Clarke has tremendous energy), Carla (Emilia Emery-Rawnsley), Dean (Thomas Ingles), Walid (Jaiyan Gibson) and Thor (Lily-May Dudley) reflect on events the led their erstwhile buddy to leave.
Seven months pass, then Saba begins leaving mysterious riddles for the group to solve. The clues lead to the staff room, the changing rooms, and the school’s spanking new theatre auditorium, funded by Carla’s dad. As each riddle emerges, the friends, in different ways, begin to rethink some of their attitudes towards school, exams, each other and the future. Did they listen enough when Saba had things to tell them before she went away?
Events come to a head on the school prom night. It is a moment of joy for the group, but when Saba finally reappears, she has something huge to ask her friends. Loyalties are put to the test, both to Saba and to the broader school community. Anticipate fiery sparks and hard choices in a piece that asks difficult, unflinching questions of its teenage ensemble.
Reviewed on 26 June 2025
The National Theatre Connections Festival runs until 28 June 2025
Exciting new youth theatre.
