Kitty, Rochelle, Sinita and Hannah want to be famous. They yearn to appear in the pages of Heat and Hello. Kitty has worked out that the quickest way to achieve their dream is for them to become eye-candy on the arms of more talented or famous men. So they ditch their school boyfriends, hoping to snare a boy band - by the end of the day, at least. Only when it comes to smart thinking, their ex-boyfriends may have the edge.
Mark Ravenhill's 21st-century teenage revenge drama puts laughs above gore, and will probably be revived more than some of his famous plays, such as Shopping and Fucking. That is only right, because it has been specially commissioned along with nine other plays for performance by schools and youth theatre groups as part of the Shell Connections season.
This National Theatre performance came courtesy of Ireland's Kildare Youth Group, who performed it with evident enjoyment. It may be slight and deliberately light in tone, but it has plenty to say about a culture where our dreams are lies. And in the process it celebrates the transforming power of theatre.
It is hard to work up such enthusiasm for An Island Far From Here by the Finnish writer Laura Ruohonen. Although it was performed with considerable pluck by New Peckham Varieties, this gloomy tale of angst, parenting and love proved only that some plays don't travel, and that it is a long way from rural Finland to urban Peckham. The author apparently thought she had written a comedy.
The Connections season is a great idea, but it strikes me that the only way it will make a real contribution and a real change in our attitudes to young people, culture and the National itself is if it becomes an ongoing, year-round initiative rather than an annual event. And there is no need for the patronising and jokey interventions of a stand-up comic to help the evening slip down. The plays and the productions should stand proudly alone. Totally Over You is the proof.
· Both plays are repeated on Tuesday. Box office: 020-7452 3000.
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