'To encourage our most exciting, innovative contemporary playwrights to focus their energies on writing plays specifically for performance by this younger age group is inspired. The National Theatre's Shell Connectionsseries, like all the best ideas, is simple yet far reaching and very important for the future of the theatre.' Sir Alan Ayckbourn Shell Connections 2003 premieres ten new plays, specially commissioned by the National Theatre, by some of the best writers around. With a wide range of cast sizes and settings - including the dark side of the moon, a multiplex cinema, the tarot universe, Roman London, and the eve of the Queen's Golden Jubilee - there's plenty of comedy, quests for courage, fame and fortune, tales of sinister parallel worlds, magical happenings and the power of human action. Schools and youth theatre groups will be spoilt for choice with this fantastic new collection. Visit the Shell Connections website at www.shellconnections.org. This limited print-run anthology is sold exclusively (while stocks last) from the National Theatre's specialist theatre bookshop. To acquire further copies: Telephone: 020 7452 3456/ Fax 020 7452 3457/ E-mail: [email protected]/secure online ordering www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/bookshop. A copy of this anthology has been placed in every secondary school in the UK through the generous support of The Foyle Foundation. Included in the collection are the following: Brokenville by Philip Ridley The Crossing Path by Maya Chowdhry Dust by Sarah Daniels The Ice Palace by Lucinda Coxon An Island Far from Here by Laura Ruohonen (translated by David Hackston) Moontel Six by Constance Congdon Multiplex by Christopher William Hill Purple by Jon Fosse (translated by David Harrower) The Queen Must Die by David Farr Totally Over You by Mark Ravenhill