The Young Harts Writing Festival is back this April, bringing a series of ten new engaging short plays.

Following a competition, five plays written by young writers between the ages of 10 and 25 were selected to be performed, alongside five plays commissioned and written by professional writers.

Their shared brief - to write a ten minute piece on the theme of ‘secrets’ in whichever form they wished to interpret it.

Following the success of the festival last April, this year promises to deliver equally original and compelling drama.

As before, the audience will be kept guessing as to whether the writer was a professional or a young writer.

The writers and the winner for each night will be revealed at the end of the evening once the audience votes are counted. 

Funded by the Arts Council, the aim of the festival is to bridge the gap between young creative talents with the industry. 

Roy Alexander Weise, associate director at Harts Theatre Company, and recent winner of the 2016 James Menzies-Kitchen award for young directors, will direct the plays.

The line up of professional writers this year are Charlotte Josephine, Eve Leigh, Gbolahan Obisesan, Martin Murphy and Sabrina Mahfouz.

The five young writers will be supported throughout the process and will each be appointed a professional writer as his or her writing mentor.

The actors will be a combination of both professional actors and young talent, keeping with the concept of creating an inclusive environment to nurture new talent.

The festival takes place from 8pm on April 7 and 8 at Lyric Hammersmith.

Tickets are £10 or £5 for concessions and can be booked at www.lyric.co.uk or on 020 8741 6850.