Connections is the National Theatre’s annual, nationwide youth theatre festival, running for 28 years. Each year, 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. Trinity is proud to host seven young companies this year as part of its festival programme.

Tickets only £5!

Innocent Creatures

by Leo Butler, performed by BHASVIC Theatre Company

A play about the future, both imminent and far far away. Soon, very soon, Big Ben will be underwater surrounded by ice floes – which is where we meet Enid and Mia at the start of the play – they each have an ice floe each, as they wait to be rescued by the robots in helicopters and taken to the Holiday Inn – to be re-programmed -but on second thoughts, that’s not for Mia, she’d rather die than be rescued\captured and have a chip implanted in her neck and proceeds to plunge into the icy water and sink to the bottom of the ocean. This is a world where the robots are in charge and humans are made from recycled laptops, kindles and i-pads. All the men were killed long ago – they were far too hairy. No one is allowed to refer to having had parents at the pain of an electric shock – that’s haow the re-programming happens.

Fast forward another thousand years and Enid is still going strong, living in the rainforest that is overflowing with animals – tigers, monkeys, horses, bears, trap-door spiders and earwigs – you name it, it’s there in abudance – but the people only eat the vegatation, well you wouldn’t kill an innocent creature for food would you? Fast forward thousands and thousands of years more and the sun is scorching hot as it’s about to explode and emit it’s last ray signalling the end of planet earth along with it, and Enid is still going strong, she’s happy, she’s got her pet hamster for company and Mia’s suddenly dropped in to say hello, after being brought back to life a few hundred years earlier by the robots. The last sunset will be beautiful, worth hanging around for to see.

Leo Butler is an award-winning playwright. His plays have been produced by many of the UK’s most important theatres, including National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida, Birmingham Rep, and Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has written many celebrated plays about young people, including MADE OF STONE (Royal Court), REDUNDANT (Royal Court), BOY (Almeida), and DECADES (Brit School/Bridge Theatre Co.)
He has written historical plays such as I’LL BE THE DEVIL (RSC), and contemporary dramas such as LUCKY DOG (Royal Court), FACES IN THE CROWD (Royal Court) and THE EARLY BIRD (Queen’s Theatre, Belfast).

He has also adapted classics like WOYZECK (Birmingham Rep), pantomimes and comedies such as CINDERELLA (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and ALL YOU NEED IS LSD (Birmingham Rep), and musicals such as ALISON! A ROCK OPERA (Royal Court/King’s Head).

For ten years, Leo was Writers Tutor at the Royal Court Theatre and helped nurture a new generation of playwriting talent.