Ten plays newly commissioned for actors aged 13-19. Two-hundred young theatre companies across the UK then choose one of the plays.

That’s the idea behind the National Theatre Connections festival. This year the Playhouse is participating in the festival, with two different local Connections productions taking the stage nightly, finishing tomorrow, Friday.

Monday’s opening pair of plays turned out to be a considerably mixed bag. Oxford Actors Company chose Frank & Ferdinand by Samuel Adamson, an ambitious story about a village in a war-ravaged country that awakes to discover that 130 of its children have vanished. They have gone to a training camp run by the charismatic, but sexually unsavoury, Sebastian — OAC’s depiction of the kids being marched about like mindless sheep, their faces devoid of all expression, was especially effective and chilling.

Adamson’s dialogue was sharply and convincingly acted as it fed in strong meat themes ranging from homophobia to rape to cowardice. If the interrogating officer at the subsequent enquiry did seem a little too like an eager school prefect, that was a small quibble in a production that brought credit on all concerned, especially the director — very sadly, I can give you no details since none were listed in the programme.

The Stage Fright Theatre Company drew a shorter straw with Too Fast by Douglas Maxwell. This is the story of a new vocal group formed by the initials-only DD — well portrayed here (again no names provided) as a born leader in the making. But DD hits trouble when she decides to launch her group at the funeral of a fellow pupil, killed in a car crash. A strong idea, but the play presents few opportunities for stage action, and the cast often seemed unconvinced by the dialogue. As for the funeral song itself, perhaps it’s kindest to leave that to the imagination.

Giles Woodforde