London’s Old Vic is launching an ambitious project to find the 50 most talented young people in the city’s theatre scene, and to give them exactly 24 hours to do something impressive with their moment in the spotlight. “Over the span of a single night and day teams that have never worked together before must write, produce and perform plays. At 10pm the ‘companies’, each consisting of a playwright, a director, a producer and a handful of actors, is put together for the first time. The playwrights have all night to come up with a script; cast and crew have from 7am to rehearse it and learn their lines, before curtain up at 8pm. It’s terrifying for old timers, let alone newcomers. Yet the practice of creating a piece of theatre in the crucible of such a short time is not only invigorating but also immensely instructive.”