INTERNATIONAL Connections, the young people's theatre project administered by the Royal National Theatre, takes over The Studio at York Theatre Royal for four nights next week.

From a pool of 12 new plays, each lasting no more than an hour, Youth Theatre Yorkshire director Jill Adamson has chosen to present Tasmin Oglesby's Olive, a comedy about Olive's life being turned on its head when her father returns home after 14 years away.

Under director Maggie Goddard, the Theatre Royal's education officer, new company IN2 Theatre Royal stages Fausto Paravadino's Nuts, a cartoon-style comedy based on the comic-strip characters of Charles M Schulz.

Tina Wright's Stagewrite company has selected Jackie Kay's Take Away, in which a solution must be found for a city's onion problem.

Bev Veasey's cast from Huntington School feels the heat in The Exam, a high-pressure exam comedy from Andy Hamilton, the writer and producer of Drop The Dead Donkey.

Two plays will be performed each evening from Wednesday to Saturday, starting at 7.15pm, with Olive and Nuts on the first night; The Exam and Take Away on night two; Nuts and The Exam, night three; and Take Away and Olive, night four.

All four productions will go through to the regional showcase at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in the week of May 6 in the hope of being picked for the national showcase at the Royal National Theatre in July.

Maggie Goddard, who has been seconded to the Theatre Royal from Joseph Rowntree School for a year, is delighted by the standard of the plays and productions. "There's some fantastic material; it's so new and exciting, and is truly aimed at young people," she says.

"We live in this world of e-mails and the Internet where they make cyber connections with each other but this is more real, and it's a national and international event too, with places such as Brussels, Cyprus and Nova Scotia being involved."

Tickets cost £5, concessions £4, for each evening. To book, ring 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:42 Friday, March 15, 2002