NT Connections - new departures
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008Like the Finborough Theatre, the best kept secrets are often hidden away from the usual theatre razamataz. Neil McPherson, who has just unearthed another amazing find in Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square has proved to have that absolutely essential but elusive quality when it comes to running a theatre: an unerring sense of a good play be it fifty, sixty years old or fresh off the keyboard.
The same has been true of that little sung festival on the South Bank, NT Connections. Almost ignored by most critics, over the past decade under the watchful but inspired direction of Suzy Graham-Adriani, the most amazing plays have been brought into being. The fact that they were aimed at young people is probably the reason why they have been, in the main, so studiously ignored. And true, not all have been whizbangs. But Graham-Adriani, like McPherson has had the same unerring sense of clarity about the target she’s aiming at, and, more intriguingly, a talent for persuading writers to write for her. For some, its given them a new life, for others, an unexpected jolt in a new direction. Bryony Lavery, Mark Ravenhill, Philip Ridley all became regular signees, Patrick Marber, Sharman Macdonald, Sarah Daniels, Lucinda Coxon, Snoo Wilson and recently Dennis Kelly, Enda Walsh, Lin Coghlan just a few in the long line of writers who found themselves seduced by Graham-Adriani’s enthusiasm.
Now Connections has undergone yet another of its many transformations (over the years from biennial to annual; and, according to the sponsor, from BT to Shell Connections and now under Bank of America, New Connections). Graham-Adriani has gone. New Connections has a bright, new shining presentational style. It will be fascinating to see the recruits who are lured on board in the future to this small but perfectly formed youth programme.