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Bush Theatre announces its annual window for script submissions

Bush Theatre

Today the Bush Theatre, London has announced that their latest script submissions window will run from 27 November 2020 until 10 January 2021.

The Bush Theatre is internationally famed for developing the very best of the UK’s leading writers, often through cold submissions or its talent development programmes, which open routes into theatre to people who didn’t previously have access. The theatre has been supporting writers for nearly 50 years and has most recently helped launch the careers of Ambreen Razia (The Diary of a Hounslow Girl), Sophie Wu (Ramona Tells Jim), Ella Road (The Phlebotomist), and Temi Wilkey, whose play The High Table was the last live show performed at the Bush prior to the first lockdown.

During the window, the theatre will welcome submissions of full-length plays (running at 60 mins or more) from writers based in the UK or Ireland who are not currently represented by an agent. This year two writers will be selected for the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group, the theatre’s literary team will meet with 25 writers and 100 more will receive feedback via email.

Deirdre O’Halloran, Literary Manager of the Bush Theatre said, ‘Open submissions has become our most exciting way to get to know new talent, bringing us eight members of our Emerging Writers Group, two of our commissioned writers and even a production over the last two years. I can’t wait to meet the brilliant writers who come through this year!’

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The Bush Theatre announce further shows in Lynette Linton’s first season as Artistic Director

Bush Theatre
  • The local community appear at the core of The Living Room and  Our Place, Our Time
  • Level Up introduces new talent discovered by the Bush Theatre appearing alongside award-winning actor Malachi Kirby
  • The world premiere of award-winning writer Ella Road’s Fair Play
  • Graeae and Tamasha Theatre join the Bush in presenting the world premiere of Shahid Khan’s 10 Nights
  • The Queer House presents an extended version of the Edinburgh Fringe hit Pink Lemonade

(art direction by Doug Kerr)

Lynette Linton and the Bush Theatre follow the success of Chiaroscuro, Baby Reindeer (which transfers to the West End and NYC this year) and critically acclaimed productions The Arrival, I Wanna Be Yours, Collapsible and The High Table by announcing further shows to complete Lynette’s first season.

Putting the community front and centre of the programming, the venue announces two new works – The Living Room and Our Place, Our Time – which have been made in collaboration with local organisations, along with further details of Level Up, a ground-breaking production written by award-winning actor Malachi Kirby in which he appears alongside an ensemble of new young actors found from across London through a series of workshops run by Lynette Linton and Daniel Bailey.

Other highlights include the world premiere of Fair Play by Ella Road; 10 Nights, a co-production with Graeae and Tamasha, and the return of The Queer House to the Bush with an extended version of the critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe hit Pink Lemonade.

Shahid Khan and Ella Road join Temi Wilkey and Zia Ahmed as writers in this season who have been discovered and supported by the Bush’s talent development initiatives. Ella Road was part of the Bush Theatre’s 2018 Emerging Writers’ Group and was commissioned in full at the end of the programme. Shahid was on Graeae’s 2018 Write to Play Programme, which the Bush Theatre partnered on, and wrote part of 10 Nights in the Bush Theatre’s on-site Writers Room.

Lynette Linton said:

‘Breaking down the barriers between ‘professional’ work and community work is why I wanted to run a building, so I’m proud to announce two new works created in partnership with our local community, as well as bringing Level Up, a collaboration between Malachi Kirby and new London talent, to the stage.

The continuation of my first season also highlights how integral nurturing new writers is to the Bush, as we announce plays by two more writers who have been supported by our talent development programs. 

I’m also proud to continue and grow successful creative partnerships with The Queer House, Graeae and Tamasha – companies that are continually pushing the boundaries of new writing, as well as with local organisations, the Baron’s Court Project and Masbro Tea Centre Club.’

Made with The Masbro Tea Centre Club

OUR PLACE, OUR TIME

Lead Artist – Will Hudson

Musical Director – Alex Etchart

Movement Director – Corinne Meredith

Lighting Designer – Devon Muller

Videographer – Michael Lynch

Stage Manager – Dylan Tate

Masbro Centre Lead – Tina Wood

28 March

Home. A word that everyone recognises and, more importantly, feels. But what does home really mean? Is it a house? A country? Is your true home hiding somewhere in the past or can you find it in the here and now?

Over the past few months, the Masbro elders have been talking, singing and writing about what home means to them.

Part dance-theatre, part musical, part festival, Our Place, Our Time invites the audience to celebrate the wild complexity that the word home brings in turbulent 2020. Moving and hilarious, the piece places the Masbro group as leaders, co-creators and activists in their community.

This is their place and their time. This is their home.

Will Hudson is a theatre-maker and facilitator based in London, who has been working for over 15 years in the fields of participatory arts and ensemble theatre, both in the UK and abroad. His work is strongly informed by European and contemporary actor training and through international collaborations with Declan Donnellan of Cheek By Jowl, Anne Bogart of SITI Company New York, the National Theatre of Spain and Jeremy James of Theatre du Soleil. In a participatory context, Will’s focus is on nurturing people’s creativity and confidence through devising original works of artistic excellence. In London, he has partnered with a wide range of theatres and organisations including The Bush, The Old Vic, Kiln Theatre, BAC, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Outside Edge Theatre, Turning Point, Paddington Development Trust, Working With Men, amongst many others.

Corinne Meredith is a Community Dance and Theatre Artist working in a variety of community settings. Her dance work includes work at the Place and DanceWest and she is Creative Support Artist for the National Youth Dance Company. She has previously worked at Trinity Laban, the Royal Academy of Dance and has led projects for NYDC and Company of Elders at Sadler’s Wells. Corinne runs Neighbourhood Play at the Young Vic and was a Project Associate and Dance Captain for Public Acts at the National Theatre from 2017-2019. Prior to becoming freelance, Corinne was a youth theatre leader/director and Participation Projects Manager at the Orange Tree Theatre.

Over the past 15 years, Tina Wood has worked creatively with older people in a variety of settings including The Peabody Trust and AgeUK Lambeth. In 2010 she set up The Purple Hat Company, a not-for-profit organisation, to encourage and promote the arts and older people, running a week-long, multimedia arts event as part of Wandsworth Arts Festival which highlighted and celebrated the work of older artists. Her work with the Masbro Elders Project continues to focus on partnership building with the aim of opening doors to a wealth of cultural and learning opportunities for older people.

Made with the Women’s Group at Barons Court Project

The Living Room

3 – 8 April

Lead Artist Katie Duncan

Designed by Becky-Dee Trevenen

The Living Room is an immersive, sensory installation exploring the central role of the domestic living room in our lives and the imaginative possibilities of these familiar spaces. Facilitator Katie Duncan worked with the participants at Barons Court Women’s Project over nine months, supporting them to embark on a creative journey that culminates in this centrepiece installation. Many of the objects on display have been created by women in the group and encourage visitors to be playful and curious, engaging with all the possible living worlds contained within the space.

Katie Duncan is a scriptwriter, creative arts facilitator, and musician from South London. She has extensive experience of developing and delivering creative and participatory arts workshops within an array of community, educational and arts settings including The Albany, Bush Theatre, The Old Vic, Roundhouse and Wigmore Hall – and at festivals including Glastonbury, Shambala, and Wilderness, where she has also performed as a musician. Katie regularly collaborates on projects with the theatre company Tangled Feet, and as a writer, she is a graduate of both the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court and the Writers’ Lab at the Arcola. Her writing is concerned with integrating the personal and the political, exploring the social issues that underpin the drama of our everyday lives, and she has had work staged at various places including Rich Mix, Tara Arts, and Edinburgh Festival. Earlier this year her play The Dame was staged at the Park Theatre, and a screenplay she has co-written entitled Bare is currently in pre-production with Raindog Films.

The Bush Theatre presents

Level Up

Written and performed by Malachi Kirby

Directed by Lynette Linton and Daniel Bailey

Set and Costume Design by Frankie Bradshaw

Lighting Design by Jessica Hung Han Yun

Sound Design and Composition by Francis Botu

Movement Direction by Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster

Cast includes Maymuna Abdi, Malik Dapaah, Kane Feagan, Jonny Khan, Tia Scarlett

1 May – 6 June

Press night – 7 May

Post-Show Q&A – 12 May

Captioned Performance – 14 May at 7.30 pm

Audio Described Performance – 30 May at 2.30 pm

If you had the chance to re-play your life, what would you do differently?

When Ezra was at school, teachers would always talk about the future. What future? All he could see was the choice right in front of him. Play by the rules or pay the bills? Get moved to or make the first move? In Ezra’s world, life was a game and he was playing for survival.

But now Ezra’s got the chance to re-play the game of his life, and this time, he’s going to win.

Having won plaudits for his leading roles in Roots and Black Mirror, Malachi Kirby stars alongside an ensemble of new young actors in his exhilarating and visually stunning debut play that explores growing up in London.

Frankie Bradshaw is an award-winning set and costume designer for theatre and performance. She won the Best Creative West End Debut at the Stage Debut Awards 2019 jointly with director Lynette Linton for Sweat at the Gielgud Theatre. She was a Jerwood Young Designer in 2017, she won the Off West-End Best Set Design award in 2016, and was a Linbury Prize finalist in 2015.  Frankie’s recent design credits for theatre include: Sweat (West End/Donmar Warehouse), Two Trains Running (Royal & Derngate/UK Tour), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), A Christmas Carol (Theatre Clwyd), Napoli Brooklyn (UK Tour/Park Theatre), Skellig (Nottingham Playhouse), Trying It On (UK Tour/RSC/Royal Court), Kiss Me Kate, Jerusalem, Nesting, Robin Hood (Watermill Theatre), Cookies (Theatre Royal Haymarket), On The Exhale (Traverse), Hansel (Salisbury Playhouse). For opera, she has designed: Macbeth, Idomeneo, and Elizabetta for English Touring Opera.

Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster is a passionate contemporary dance theatre choreographer, maker and movement director, and was a founding member of award-winning company, C-12 Dance Theatre. Her recent theatre credits include The Bee in Me by Ronald Schimmelpfennig dir. by Rachel Bagshaw; You Stupid Darkness by Sam Steiner dir. James Grieve at Southwark Playhouse; The Last Noel by Chris Bush dir. by Jonathan Humphries; Pavilion by Emily White dir. by Tamara Harvey at Theatr Clwyd; Chiaroscuro by Jackie Kay dir. by Lynette Linton at The Bush; On The Other Hand We’re Happy by Daf James, Daughterhood by Charley Miles and Dexter & Winters Detective Agency by Nathan Byron dir. by Stef O’Driscoll for ROUNDABOUT; Aesop’s Fables by Justin Audibert and Rachel Bagshaw at the Unicorn Theatre; Grimm Tales Phillip Pullman’s collection adapted by Philip Wilson dir. by Kirsty Housley at the Unicorn Theatre; Jericho’s Rose by Althea Theatre at The Hope & Anchor; POP MUSIC by Anna Jordan and dir. by James Grieve, Barry Jackson and national tour; The Court Must Have a Queen by Ade Solanke dir. by Sam Curtis Lindsay at Hampton Court Palace; These Bridges by Phoebe Éclair-Powell (WCYT as part of National Theatre Connections at The Bush); The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales by Joel Horwood and Emma Rice (2016-2017 Shakespeare’s Globe, presented by Bristol Old Vic 2017-2018 then toured nationally) and The Dark Room by Angela Betzien (Theatre503).

ON A LEVEL

Curated by Basheba Baptiste

Saturday 3 May, 12pm – 6pm

On a Level is an all-day event celebrating youth culture, city life, and gaming. Join local young artists to experiment with poetry, create your own map of London or join the quest to save the show. What are you waiting for? Get your free tickets before they’re snapped up. For 12 – 18 year olds.

I SPEAK THE CITY, Script Library, 12 pm

In huge cities like London, it’s easy to lose who you are amongst the noise and the chaos. Join artist Christy Ku, for a special workshop that explores how to find yourself and your voice through poetry writing and performance. If you’ve never written or performed before, don’t worry – this is aimed at complete beginners to help you gain confidence on and off the page.

MEMORY MAP YOUR CITY, Attic, 1 pm

What places did you walk past yesterday? Living in our city, being constantly on-the-go, how much do you actually remember? Artist Lizzie Reid will lead a unique illustration workshop where we’ll create memory-maps of our day, exploring the details of our hometowns and our relationship with time.

LEVEL UP: THE QUEST, Script Library, 5 pm

Older Ezra (played by Malachi Kirby) has got lost on a gaming level and needs to be found before the evening show starts. You and your team have an hour to follow the clues, crack the code, find Ezra and save the show. Will you take up the challenge?

You must have seen Level Up to take part in this quest.

Graeae and Tamasha in association with Bush Theatre present

10 Nights

by Shahid Iqbal Khan

Directed by Kash Arshad

28 May – 27 June

Press Night – 2 June at 7 pm

Post-Show Q&A – 23rd June

All performances of 10 Nights will be audio described and will creatively integrate captioning and British Sign Language (BSL)

One man’s spiritual journey is about to begin…after he’s sent this tweet

When Yasser decides to take part in itikaf, sleeping and fasting in the mosque for the last ten nights of Ramadan, he soon regrets his decision. But as he navigates smug worshippers, shared bathrooms, and recurring thoughts of chunky chips, Yasser’s isolation forces him to confront a side of himself he’s been trying to keep hidden.

A moving and funny new play by Shahid Iqbal Khan and directed by Kash Arshad, 10 Nights is the story of one man’s journey of self-discovery and facing the consequences of your actions.

Shahid Iqbal Khan’s initial foray into playwriting began with a 15-minute play for Carol Godby’s Festival of Plays (Bury, Lancashire).   Phizzical’s Associate Artist scheme allowed him to further explore the medium of playwriting. His first play for them, The Smile of Despair, performed for two nights at the Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester) in 2015. The piece was later redrafted and retitled as Mr. And Mrs. Khan. It was a finalist in the Top 5 Play Readings Festival and was performed for one night at the Octagon Theatre (Bolton) in 2016.

His second play was a musical for Phizzical, Stardust, written in collaboration with Samir Bhamra, with lyrics by Robby Khela. It ran for one week at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 2019. The story looked at gender and sexuality through the prism of the Bollywoodian reincarnation genre.

Shahid Iqbal Khan took part in Graeae Theatre’s Write to Play development programme in 2018. This year was about developing playwriting skills as well as liaising with programme partners Tamasha, Bush Theatre, Ovalhouse, Talawa and Soho Theatre. He makes his London debut with 10 Nights.

Kash Arshad was the Trainee Artistic Director at Freedom Studios in Bradford, and is now a freelance theatre director living in Halifax. Recent directing credits: Guards at the Taj (Theatre by the Lake) Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (Freedom Studios), Airplays (Leeds Playhouse), We Are Ninja Division (Slung Low Shorts), The Tempest (ALRA North), Selfies Kill More People Than Sharks (Rogue Bones),

Memories of Partition (Royal Exchange), Free Fall (Rogue Bones), The Big Reveal (Abooo Theatre) and Street Voices 7 (Freedom Studios). As Assistant Director: The Threepenny Opera (Octagon Bolton, dir. David Thacker), Handbagged (Theatre by The Lake, dir. Liz Stevenson), North Country (Freedom Studios for. Alex Chisholm), ChipShop The Musical (Freedom Studios/Octagon Bolton dir. Ben Occhipinti), Romeo and Juliet (West Yorkshire Playhouse, dir. Amy Leach).

Graeae is a force for change in world-class theatre – breaking down barriers, challenging preconceptions and boldly placing Deaf and disabled artists centre stage.

Artistically led by Jenny Sealey, Graeae’s signature characteristic is the compelling creative integration of sign language, captioning and audio description, which engages with both disabled and non-disabled audiences.  Championing accessibility and providing a platform for new generations of artists, Graeae leads the way in pioneering, trail-blazing theatre, both in the UK and internationally.

Graeae also run an extensive programme of training and learning opportunities throughout the year, developing the next generation of Deaf and disabled artists. These programmes include Write to Play for early-career writers, and Ensemble, which trains young Deaf and disabled artists in theatre making skills. Graeae are lucky enough to have a cohort of young artistic advisors, also known as The Rollettes, who come together to perform once a year.

Graeae are a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) of Arts Council England and strategic partners of Ramps on the Moon. graeae.org / @graeae

Tamasha has a 30-year history of reaching new writing audiences and specialise in making new work for the stage inspired by the ever-changing cultures of contemporary Britain. They aim to spark distinctive social discourse through compelling theatre experiences that place the voices of emerging and established artists from culturally diverse backgrounds centre-stage.

Landmark productions include East Is East (1996), A Fine Balance (2006), Snookered (2012), My Name is… (2014), Blood (2015), Made In India (2017), Approaching Empty (2018), Does My Bomb Look Big In This? (2019), and I Wanna Be Yours (2019) winning acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Alongside their national tours, Tamasha continues to nurture the next generation of theatre-makers through Tamasha Developing Artists (TDA); a national artist development programme with a track record of providing high-quality training and tangible professional opportunities for emerging and established theatre artists throughout their careers. They facilitate theatre-makers to engage with communities, young people and audiences through unique engagement, education projects, and creative collaborations.

tamasha.org.uk / @TamashaTheatre

The Bush Theatre presents

Fair Play

by Ella Road

12 June – 18 July

Press night – 17 June at 7 pm

Post-Show Q&A – 23 June

Captioned performance – 2 July at 7.30 pm

Audio Described performance – 11 July at 2.30 pm

The clocks are set. The line is drawn. They’ve got a chance to be champions. But at what cost? 

When Ann joins Sophie’s running club she’s thrown into a world of regimented training and pure focus. The two girls couldn’t be more different, but soon their shared passion makes them inseparable – dreaming in lanes and lap-times, waking up picturing Olympic medals, each day stronger and faster…

But set head to head in the run-up to the World Championships, they find themselves and their friendship put to the ultimate test. As their relationships, their bodies, and their very identities are pulled into public scrutiny, does being exceptional come at too high a price?

A gripping exploration of the underside of women’s athletics, Fair Play is the new work from Ella Road (The Phlebotomist) – “the most promising young playwright in Britain” (The Telegraph).

Ella Road is a writer and actor from London. Her debut play The Phlebotomist went on at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in 2018 before transferring to the Main Stage in 2019. It was nominated for an Olivier Award and was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It was adapted into a radio drama for BBC R3. Ella is currently writing new commissions for the Almeida Theatre and Hampstead Theatre, and her play How to Eat An Elephant will premiere at Theatre Royal Plymouth this Autumn. She is also developing work for film and TV, including original series with Drama Republic for Channel 4, and Element Pictures for the BBC, and she recently wrote the short film Something Will Disappear for the Artists Climate Action Network. Ella was lucky enough to be a Soho Young Writer 2017/18 and one of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers 2018/19. Ella is co-founder of Flux Theatre, which aims to support new voices in the arts. She also facilitates workshops and teaches playwriting for Synergy Theatre.

The Queer House in association with Bush Theatre (originally co-produced by HighTide) present

Pink Lemonade

By Mika Onyx Johnson

Directed by Emily Aboud

1 – 25 July

Press Night – 3 July at 7 pm

Post-Show Q&A – 8 July

Captioned performance – 9 July at 7.45 pm

Audio Described performance – 18 July at 2.45 pm

★★★★ – “Life frequently gave them lemons but goddam Johnson’s got the juice” – The Stage 18 best shows of Edinburgh Fringe 2019

Falling in love was sweet like sugar until the taste turned bitter. Caught between Simmi who wants it bad but ain’t a lesbian, and Token Toni who loves a bitta bashment and only dates black and brown womxn – Mika can’t seem to catch a break.

Fresh from a smash-hit run at the Edinburgh Fringe, original beats collide with poetry, movement, and storytelling in Mika Onyx Johnson’s debut play – an exploration of sexuality, gender, and self-discovery.

Mika Onyx Johnson is an actor, writer and performance artist from Nottingham now based in London. Recent credits include; as an actor Cyrano de Bergerac (West End/ New York) and as a writer My White Best Friend (The Bunker). Pink Lemonade is Mika’s debut show. It previewed at the Gate Theatre and premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 where it was included in The Stage 18 best shows of the Fringe. It is currently being developed for TV.

Emily Aboud is a Trinidadian theatre director and writer. Most recently Emily wrote and directed SPLINTERED (Edinburgh/VAULT). Other directing credits include Pink Lemonade (Gate Theatre/Edinburgh/HighTide); Exceptional Promise (Bush Theatre); Salty Irina (Ovalhouse) and What We Talk About When We (Don’t) Talk About Race (Theatre503). As an associate director, her work includes A Place for We (Park Theatre) and Parlour Games (Bridewell Theatre) and as assistant director Going Through (Bush Theatre); A Small Place (Gate Theatre) and Deposit (Hampstead).  Emily also performs as a drag king called TriniDad & TooGayThough.

The Queer House is an artists’ agency and producing house for queer actors, writers, and makers and is an associate company at the Gate Theatre.  Recent credits for its artists include The Nevers (HBO); January 22nd (BBC/HBO); Cyrano de Bergerac (West End); HANNA (Amazon Prime); I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole! (Complicité); Malory Towers (Wise Children); Them! (National Theatre Scotland); Pah-La (Royal Court); And The Rest of Me Floats (Bush Theatre); Cuckoo (Soho); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre) and The Feed (Amazon Prime).  The Queer House debut double bill of shows premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 as part of a co-production with HighTide where they were included in The Stage 18 best shows and The Guardian top picks of the Fringe.

SUMMER AT THE BUSH THEATRE

This summer, a bold and provocative programme of live podcasts and musicians will be taking over the Bush Theatre, followed by DJs playing till late on the terrace. The Bush will be home to several food pop ups, serving up delicious Nigerian, Caribbean and BBQ dishes.

The Bush Theatre will also be rolling out the green turf and screening the biggest sporting events of the summer, including the UEFA European Championships, Olympic Games, and Wimbledon. Enjoy a front row seat for your favourite matches and sample our new range of summer spritzers, including the West London Mule and Wimbledon Collins, brought to you in partnership with our local distillery, Sipsmith.

The Bush Theatre’s outdoor terrace is perfect for summertime drinks and watching the world of Shepherd’s Bush go by. It’s a heavenly sun trap and one of the only outdoor cafe bars in the area.

SUMMER SESSIONS

The Big Black Quiz

Friday 22 May, Script Library, 6pm-11.30pm

Think you know your Audre Lorde from your Toni Morrison? Or your BBK from your Roll Deep? Join Veepa for this educational yet thrilling quiz that will have you questioning how well you know your Black history. This will be a pub quiz like you’ve never seen before.

Mary and Friends Live w/ Rai the DJ

Friday 12 June, Attic, 6pm – 11.30pm

Mary and Friends returns to the Bush following a sold out event. Expect a panel discussion exploring the LGBT+ community, live performances and an after party provided by Rai the DJ.

Dykes And A Mic (DAAM) Podcast Live

Friday 3 July, Attic, 5pm – 11.30pm

In celebration of their one-year anniversary, the Dykes And A Mic podcast takes to the stage for their first live podcast event. This will be followed by an after-party on the Bush terrace with resident DJ, Rai the DJ.

Rai the DJ Day Party

Friday 15 August, Bush Terrace, 12pm – 11.30pm

Can’t wait until carnival? Come down to the Bush this August for great vibes, great music and great cocktails.

SUMMER FOOD POP UPS
Vegan Nigerian – Nigerian cuisine

14 June

Angry Black Kitchen – Nigerian cuisine

21 June, 26 July, 9 August

Original Flava – Caribbean cuisine

12 July
Brothers BBQ Brunches – Garage music brunch

28 June, 2 August, 16 August

 

SUMMER SCREENINGS

UEFA European Championships: 12th June – 12th July

12 June – Turkey v Italy

13 June – Wales v Switzerland, Denmark v Finland & Belgium v Russia

14 June – England v Croatia, Austria v play-off winner & Netherlands v Ukraine

15 June – Play-off winner v Czech Republic, Poland v play-off winner & Spain v Sweden

16 June – Play-off winner v Portugal & France v Germany

17 June – Finland v Russia, Turkey v Wales & Italy v Switzerland

18 June- Ukraine v Play-off winner, Denmark v Belgium & Netherlands v Austria

19 June – Sweden v Play-off winner, Croatia v Czech Republic & England v play-off winner

20 June – Play-off winner v France, Portugal v Germany & Spain v Poland

21 June – Italy v Wales & Switzerland v Turkey

22 June – Play-off winner v Netherlands, Ukraine v Austria & Finland v Belgium

23 June – Czech Republic v England, Croatia v play-off winner

24 June – Play-off winner B v Spain & Germany v play-off winner

27 June – 2A v 2B & 1A v 2C

28 June – 1C v 3D/E/F & 1B v 3A/D/E/F

29 June – 2D v 2E & 1F v 3A/B/C

30 June – 1D v 2F & 1E v 3A/B/C/D

3 July – Quarter Finals 1 & 2

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Baby Reindeer will play a strictly limited season at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End

Baby Reindeer
  • Following award-winning, sell out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Bush Theatre, Richard Gadd’s Tour De Force one-man show will play a strictly limited season at The Ambassadors Theatre in the West End
  • A harrowing story of how one act of kindness plunged Richard Gadd into six years of relentless stalking and harassment
  • Tickets go on sale for the production today with over 500 tickets per week priced at £25 or less

“I did question whether I deserved it. Where did my wrongdoing stop and hers begin?”

When award-winning comedian Richard Gadd offers a stranger a free cup of tea, he has no sense of the nightmare to come. One act of kindness. Six years of torment.

The sell-out smash hit of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Baby Reindeer is the “blistering” debut play (The Daily Telegraph) from Richard Gadd (Monkey See Monkey Do, Netflix’s Sex Education). Directed by Olivier Award-winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam), this is a chilling personal account of compulsion, delusion and obsession. Some admirers simply won’t be shaken off. “A haunted, haunting hour.” (The Guardian).

Baby Reindeer will play a strictly limited London run at the Ambassadors Theatre ahead of a New York transfer to BAM in May 2020.

Richard Gadd said: “Baby Reindeer has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences of my life. With an incredible team behind me, I have pushed myself to ridiculous limits in a show I find incredibly hard to say and do. The show is about the past six years of my life. An incredibly complicated, messy, confusing, and ultimately challenging period of time at the hands of a serial stalker hell-bent on ruining my life. It is a period of my life that I still look back on to this day with much unease. How did it get as bad as it did? How was it allowed to go on for so long? Why was there no help for me? I feel a moral duty to let people know the terrifying reality of going through something like this. I am absolutely delighted to be in the West End at such a prestigious venue like the Ambassadors. It is all a dream come true.”

Francesca Moody said: “It has been truly incredible to watch the success of Richard’s remarkable theatrical debut in Edinburgh and then at the Bush Theatre. Baby Reindeer is one of the most original and brilliant pieces of theatre I have ever seen and I passionately believe that it should be experienced by as many people as possible. I am thrilled to be partnering with Sonia Friedman Productions to bring Baby Reindeer to the West-End and a wider audience.”

Sonia Friedman said: “In the early 2000s, I produced, programmed and oversaw dozens of productions at the Ambassadors Theatre. It occupies a special place in my heart as the venue where I learned to push the boundaries of what is possible in commercial theatre. SFP is thrilled to be returning with this extraordinary play featuring a truly break-out performance from Richard Gadd. Baby Reindeer is the first of several remarkable works my creative development team and I have sought out to bring to this beautiful and intimate venue. We are excited to present this original, vital, small-scale work which demands to be seen by a wider audience in London’s West End.”

***** ‘A haunting, unsettling monologue about the nature of obsession’ – Evening Standard

**** ‘…tightens its grip with terrible inexorability’ – The Guardian

***** ‘A majestic performance – a reckoning, an exorcism’ – The Stage

**** ‘A master narrator full of intelligent insight and sheer descriptive power.’  – The Scotsman

**** ‘Utterly compelling’ – WhatsOnStage.com

**** ‘Baby Reindeer will follow you all the way home.’  – Financial Times

WINNER Fringe First 2019

WINNER Stage Edinburgh Award 2019

FINALIST Offwestend Award for performance and video design

FINALIST Sit Up Award

FINALIST Mental Health Edinburgh Award

Baby Reindeer will play at the Ambassadors Theatre from April 2nd – May 2nd 2020. Over 500 tickets each week will be priced at £25 or less.

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Richard Gadd’s Fringe First Award-winning Edinburgh hit transfers to London

I looked at her, wanting to laugh.  Wanting her to share the joke.  But she didn’t.  She just stared.  I know then, in that moment – that she had taken it literally…’

When Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner Richard Gadd (Monkey See Monkey Do) offers a free cup of tea to a stranger, what appears to be a trivial interaction has ramifications far wider than he could ever have imagined.

Fresh from a sell-out critically acclaimed world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where the production was awarded a Fringe First, Baby Reindeer is an unmissable debut play and chilling personal narrative exploring obsession, delusion, and the aftermath of a chance encounter.

Directed by Olivier Award-winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam), and presented by Francesca Moody Productions in association with Bush Theatre, SEARED Productions and Julie Clare Productions, Baby Reindeer opens at the Bush Theatre on 9 October (Press night 11 October).

***** ‘A haunting, unsettling monologue about the nature of obsession’ – Evening Standard

**** ‘Jon Brittain’s production tightens its grip with terrible inexorability’ –  Guardian

***** ‘A majestic performance – a reckoning, an exorcism’ – The Stage

**** ‘A master narrator full of intelligent insight and sheer descriptive power.’  – Scotsman

***** ‘Utterly compelling’ – WhatsOnStage.com

***** ‘As taut as a classic thriller’  – The National

**** ’Baby Reindeer will follow you all the way home.’  – Financial Times

***** ‘Courageous, compelling and deeply affecting’  – British Theatre Guide 

**** ‘The stuff of nightmares’-  Independent

‘An exquisitely crafted 65 minutes’  – Lyn Gardner, Stage Door

Richard Gadd is a multi-award winning writer, performer, and actor. His show, Monkey See Monkey Do, won the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it was also nominated for a Total Theatre Award for Innovation. The show subsequently had several sell-out runs at London’s Soho Theatre, toured the UK and Europe, and had a run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where it was nominated for the 2017 Barry Award and was broadcast on Comedy Central. He subsequently developed a scripted television project based around Monkey See Monkey Do with Kudos Film and Television and Channel Four.

His previous shows Waiting for Gaddot, Breaking Gadd, and Cheese & Crack Whores were also fringe hits and all went on to three-week runs or more in the Soho Theatre. The former won the Amused Moose Best Show Edinburgh Fringe 2015 and was nominated for a Malcolm Hardee Award for Innovation. In addition, Richard won a Chortle Comedian’s Comedian Award 2017, as well as being nominated for an Off West End theatre award for Best Performer in the same year.

Richard is also a successful actor, who starred opposite Daniel Mays in the BAFTA-nominated BBC2 single drama Against the Law. Other key acting credits include C4’s Humans Series 3 and lead roles in BBC3’s Clique Series 2, and E4’s Tripped Series 1. Recently, Richard played a lead role in Sky Arts’ film One Normal Night. Richard is currently filming alongside Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays, in Sky One’s new six-part comedy series Code 404.

In addition, Richard is also a writer who has written episodes of Netflix smash-hit Sex Education, as well as Ultimate Worrier for Dave and The Last Leg for Channel Four where he is also one of their correspondents.

Richard has other scripted projects in development with Clerkenwell Films, Me & You Productions, Balloon Ltd. Fulwell, and Filmwave. He also recorded his own pilot for BBC Radio 4 with Dabster Productions, The Richard Gadd Show, which aired in July 2018.

Jon Brittain is a playwright, comedy writer and director. His critically acclaimed play Rotterdam earned him a nomination for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Other work includes the critically acclaimed Billionaire Boy: The Musical, the cult hit Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho and its sequel Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows, and the Scotsman Fringe First Award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad). He directed John Kearns’s Fosters Award-winning shows Sight Gags for Perverts and Shtick, and the follow-ups Don’t Bother, They’re Here and Double Take and Fade Away, Tom Allen’s Both Worlds, Indeed and Absolutely, Mat Ewins’s Actually Can I Have Eight Tickets Please, and Tom Rosenthal’s Manhood. For TV he has been a staff writer on Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball and on Netflix’s The Crown.

 

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New Voices, Bold Visions – Lynette Linton announces her first season at the Bush Theatre, London

Lynette Linton
  • A season of UK debut plays by British and Irish writers
  • Chiaroscuro by Jackie Kay completes Passing The Baton
  • 1000 free tickets available to young people for Level Up
  • First Look Festival to begin in 2020
  • Five Senior Artistic Associates announced

Lynette Linton has this morning announced her inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre.  The 2019 – 2020 season includes UKdebut plays from six playwrights alongside a new production of celebrated poet and playwright Jackie Kay’s first play Chiaroscuro directed byLynette Linton.  Five Senior Artistic Associates have been announced as actress Adjoa Andoh, movement director Polly Bennett, producers Shawab Iqbal and Tobi Kyeremateng and actress Martha Plimpton.  The associates will support an expansion of the Bush Theatre’s initiatives to involve new writers and theatre practitioners in the theatre industry.

The plans continue the theatre’s commitment to inclusivity, where audiences and artists reflect contemporary London.  In pursuit of this vision, the Bush will continue to look to debut writers and braid together the work presented on stage with work from its local communities.

Lynette Linton said, ‘This season at the Bush Theatre UK debuts by British and Irish writers will fill our stages. You’ll find extraordinary stories of lived experiences that speak to all corners of our city.

I believe in the Bush’s power to write narratives as well as to develop plays. That’s why I’m opening my first season with a production of ‘Chiaroscuro’, an exceptional play which concludes our ‘Passing The Baton’ programme – a three-year commitment to re-staging masterpieces by artists of colour who have been written out of history. To revive ‘Chiaroscuro’ is not only a great honour but well overdue. We are standing on the shoulders of giants and Jackie Kay is definitely one of those giants.

The season concludes with Malachi Kirby’s debut play, ‘Level Up’, which celebrates and interrogates youth culture and, for me, braids together the life of our community with the work on stage. Young people will be the heart of this project – from the making of the show to performing on stage alongside Malachi.

By investing in diverse talent, I want to create a space for the next generation. I know I need to be reaching out to 15-year-old Lynette and others like her and saying: ‘You can come in here. This is for you. This is for everyone.’

Main House productions

Bush Theatre presents

CHIAROSCURO

by Jackie Kay

Directed by Lynette Linton

31 August – 5 October

Press Night – 6 September

Captioned Performance – 12 Sept at 7.30pm

Audio Described Performance – 28 Sept at 2.30pm

Aisha, Yomi, Beth and Opal couldn’t be more different, but when Aisha hosts a dinner party, the friends soon discover that they’re all looking for an answer to the same question. Does it lie in Aisha’s childhood? Or in Beth and Opal’s new romance? Who will tell them who they really are?

What starts out as a friendly conversation between women, soon turns heated when Yomi reveals what she really thinks about Beth and Opal’s relationship.

Live music and spoken word collide in an explosive gig-theatre event that breathes new life into Scottish National Poet Jackie Kay’s 1986 masterpiece.

Directed by Lynette Linton (Sweat, Richard II), this bold reimagining explores the experiences of women of colour across generations and celebrates female identity from the 1980s to now.

Chiaroscuro is the latest production in the Passing the Baton series.

Francesca Moody Productions in association with Bush Theatre presents

BABY REINDEER

Written and performed by Richard Gadd

Directed by Jon Brittain

9 October – 9 November

Press Night – 11 October

Captioned Performance – 24 October at 7.30pm

Audio Described Performance – 2 November at 2.30pm

When Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner Richard Gadd (Monkey See Monkey Do) offers a free cup of tea to a stranger, what appears to be a trivial interaction has ramifications far wider than he could ever have imagined.

Fresh from a world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, Baby Reindeer is an unmissable debut play and chilling personal narrative exploring obsession, delusion, and the aftermath of a chance encounter. Directed by Olivier Award Winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam).

Bush Theatre presents

THE ARRIVAL

Written and directed by Bijan Sheibani

21 November – 18 January (no performances 22 Dec – 1 Jan)

Press Night – 26 November

Captioned Performance – 10 December at 7.30pm

Audio Described Performance – 21 December at 2.30pm

When Tom meets Samad it’s like he’s coming face to face with himself. They have the same gestures, the same instincts – even the same handwriting. But as they get closer and their lives become more entangled, the truth of their past threatens to bring everything crashing to the ground.

The Arrival is a taut family drama about the pain of finding – and losing – something you never had. A debut play from Olivier Award-winning theatre director Bijan Sheibani (Dance Nation, The Brothers Size, Barber Shop Chronicles).

Bush Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre  present

THE HIGH TABLE

By Temi Wilkey

8 February – 21 March

Press Night – 14 February

Captioned Performance – 27 February at 7.30pm

Audio Described Performance – 14 March at 2.30pm

The dresses are chosen and the venue is booked. But when Tara’s Nigerian parents refuse to attend her wedding to Leah, three of Tara’s ancestors are jolted from their eternal rest. High above London, they watch as the rift widens between Tara and her parents. Can they keep the family together? And will Tara’s decision ever get their blessing?

An epic family drama played out between the heavens and earth, The High Table is the hilarious and heartbreaking debut play from Temi Wilkey. The High Table was submitted through the Bush’s unsolicited submissions window, a process in which the team reads 900 scripts per year from writers not represented by an agent.

Following its premiere at the Bush, The High Table will play Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2020. This co-production marks the start of a new collaboration with The REP to produce new plays for both London and Birmingham audiences.

Bush Theatre presents

LEVEL UP

Written and performed by Malachi Kirby

Directed by Daniel Bailey and Lynette Linton

1 May – 6 June

Press night – 7 May

Captioned Performance – 14 May at 7.30pm

Audio Described Performance – 30 May at 2.30pm

This is the place you grew up in, the place you want to grow out of. Get the coins. Beat the boss. Level up. But what happens when the consequences catch up with you? What happens when you’re not really the person behind the controller?

Playful and potent, this debut play from award-winning actor Malachi Kirby (Black Mirror, Curfew, Roots) follows one boy’s fight to make the right choice when the odds are stacked against him.

Created with young people, and directed by Bush Theatre Associate Director, Daniel Bailey and Artistic Director, Lynette Linton, Level Up will be performed by Malachi and an ensemble of young performers.

Level Up will run alongside a partnership with Mentivity, a charity that focuses on mentoring young people through positive activities, sports, and education.

During the run, 1,000 tickets will be made available for free to young people under 26.

Studio productions

Paines Plough and Tamasha in association with Bush Theatre present

I WANNA BE YOURS

By Zia Ahmed

Directed by Anna Himali Howard

4 December – 18 January

Press Night – 6 December

Captioned Performance – 17 December at 7.45pm

Audio Described Performance – 11 January at 2.45pm

Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb. ‘I think I’m falling in love with you.’

People and playlists. Christmas and Eid. Love is more than just a game for two. Especially when there’s an elephant in the room. I Wanna Be Yours is the debut play from Zia Ahmed about finding love and holding onto it with everything you’ve got.

All performances of I Wanna Be Yours will be fully BSL integrated.

Ellie Keel Productions in association with Bush Theatre presents

COLLAPSIBLE

By Margaret Perry

Directed by Tom Martin

5 February – 14 March

Press night – 7 February

Captioned Performance – 20 February at 7.45pm

Audio Described Performance – 7 March at 2.45pm

Essie’s lost her job. Her girlfriend’s left. But she’s alright. Except lately she feels more like a chair than a person. One of those folding chairs. Solid one minute. And then.

From award-winning Irish writer Margaret Perry (Porcelain), Collapsible is a funny, furious new monologue about holding on in this collapsing world. For anyone who has ever felt crumbly. Winner of the Origins Award for Outstanding New Work, VAULT Festival 2019.

 

FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL

June 2020

Bush Theatre’s inaugural First Look Festival launches a new era of making and presenting work at the theatre. With the aim of giving audiencesan insight into the process and the journey of new writing, the Bush will be presenting early forms of work which will premiere in future seasons.

SENIOR ARTISTIC ASSOCIATES

The Bush Theatre announces its Senior Artistic Associates, five inspiring artists, leading practitioners in their fields, who will be attached to the building for a year. The artists will support programming, mentor artists and act as ambassadors for the theatre.

The first Associates will include actress Adjoa Andoh (Leave Taking, Richard II, Doctor Who), movement director Polly Bennett (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Crown), producers Shawab Iqbal (Theatre Royal Stratford East, New Adventures and Boy Blue) and Tobi Kyeremateng (Black Ticket Project, Babylon Festival at the Bush and J’Ouvert at Theatre 503) and actress Martha Plimpton (films including The Goonies and The Mosquito Coast and the current West End production of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat).

WRITER IN RESIDENCE

The Bush’s inaugural Writer in Residence will be announced later in the summer.  Awarded as an 18-month residency to a writer already working in the field, this advocate will support the Bush Theatre’s literary and programming teams.

DEVELOPING TALENT

PROJECT 2036

Bush Theatre’s ground-breaking Project 2036 programme which has introduced nine new BAMER writers, directors and producers to the theatre industry will adapt to support emerging BAMER Lighting, Sound and Set designers.

EMERGING WRITERS’ GROUP

The Bush Theatre today announces the fourth year of its Emerging Writers Group with a new intake of writers. The 2019 cohort will be Ava Wong Davies, Tife Kusoro, Natasha Simone, Will Jackson, Casey Bailey, Benedict Lombe.

The EWG is an opportunity for the Bush to develop relationships with new playwrights encountered through unsolicited submissions process and further afield – all of whom are at early stages in their careers.  It aims to support writers over a sustained period of time and help encourage work on a new full length play.

WEST LONDON PLAYWRIGHTS’ GROUP

The Bush continues to open routes into the theatre industry through from community work to the artist development streams, creating more opportunities to develop lasting relationships with writers at all levels.

In August the Bush will be launching a free West London Playwrights’ Group, an introductory course in playwriting skills, open to anyone aged 18 and over in West London.  Applications open today.

NEW COMMUNITY ASSOCIATE COMPANIES

The Community Associate Companies programme sees the Bush Theatre engage with two local community groups each year in a way that is long-lasting, meaningful, creative and inspirational. This year-long project forms part of a strategy to create and demonstrate a model of theatre that is culturally democratic, embedded in its local community and empowers those who don’t have access to the arts to make creative decisions.  This year the venue will work with Masbro Centre Tea Club and The Barons Court Project Women’s Group.

The Masbro Centre is a community service whose aim is to improve the health, wealth and wellbeing of the local community of Hammersmith and Fulham. The Tea Club is a weekly social group for local elders to take part in a variety of different activities, which are mainly focused on health and wellbeing.

The Barons Court Project is a charity supporting people on low incomes who are vulnerable to mental ill health and/or homelessness. The Women’s Group is a female-only space to socialise and take part in trips and activities such as arts and crafts, relaxation and cookery. It runs weekly from the charity’s base in Barons Court.

 

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Venues around the world prepare for simultaneous performance as images of ‘Babylon – Beyond Borders’ released

A tower of languages. A city of immense cultural creativity. A people’s journey.

BABYLON Beyond Borders (12 – 16 February at 7pm) is a live streamed performance both at the Bush Theatre and simultaneously in four countries.  The performance can also be seen on the Bush Theatre youtube channel on 16th February – https://www.youtube.com/user/bushtheatre

The early 70s. On four continents four iconic towers are built. Socially progressive, innovative in design, ambitious in scope, wide-ranging in purpose. Concrete. Glass. Steel. Light. Four huge Babel Towers. Fortes Paissandu 9 July, Sao Paolo, Brazil. Ponte Tower, Johannesburg South Africa. The World Trade Centre New York USA. Grenfell Tower, London.

Over their 45-year history these towers have been the site of huge global and human narratives, of dissent, protest, tragedy, terror, ideological battles, and power struggles. They have been homes and funeral pyres, to people and to ideas. They have been revered and hated and birthed myths and identities. They have witnessed cycles of history. Death. Rebirth. Reinvention. Rebranding. The events, big and small, that have taken place in these towers ripple out across the globe and meet in one performance.

Four extraordinary theatres, each deeply rooted in their own community, explore their relationship to home, language and migration. A Brazilian activist at the Pequeno Ato Theatre in São Pauloperforms with a chorus of women from Shepherd’s Bush. Musicians at Harlem Stage in New York City act out the experiences of students at the Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg in a celebration ofthe possibility and the power of cross border encounters.

Four towers. Four continents. Divided geographically: united as microcosms of human societies trying to reinvent themselves.

At the Bush Theatre three actresses are joined by a chorus of local women to perform stories drawn from their own experience of immigrating to a modern Babylon.

Theatre Director Ruthie Osterman is also a playwright, performer and drama teacher who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the school of Dramatic Arts in Tel-Aviv.  Her work includes multiple international collaborations and performances in London, Israel, Poland and India.  She is a member of the Lincoln Centre Director’s Lab in NYC and was recognised as a promising artist and endorsed for an Exceptionally Talented Artist Visa for the UK by the Arts Council of England in 2015. ​

Ticket prices

Prices from £10

Concessions: Bush Locals, Senior Citizens, Disabled and Unemployed patrons, and Bush Connect (Students and U26) members will be eligible for concession prices.

Booking:

Phone                   020 8743 5050

In person             Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ

Online                  bushtheatre.co.uk

 

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Bush Theatre announces 2019 season – The New Face of Theatre

Madani Younis
Madani Younis

Madani Younis

  •  The Bush Theatre announces seven plays and a festival as part of its 2019 season – including six collaborations, two world premieres and a UK premiere
  • This season sees the second year of Passing the Baton, a three-year programming initiative dedicated to revivals of work by writers of colour which began with Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking and continues with Strange Fruit by Caryl Phillips alongside a mentoring scheme to nurture the next generation of writers of colour
  • The season continues the theatre’s commitment to producing the best new playwrights and speaking up for diversity and inclusivity in all its forms

The Bush Theatre today announce their 2019 season, the last programmed under the Artistic Directorship of Madani Younis who after seven years at the theatre will become Creative Director at the Southbank Centre in January 2019.

2018 has seen the Bush celebrate a West End transfer for Arinzé Kene’s Misty, which has now been seen by almost 30,000 people and been nominated for an Evening Standard award for ‘Best Musical Performance’, an Olivier award nomination for Monica Dolan’s The B*easts and the ongoing world-wide success of its touring production of NASSIM which opens in New York in December.  Other celebrated work including Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking, Vinay Patel’s An Adventure and Ben Weatherill’s ground-breaking Jellyfish, re-affirm the theatre’s commitment to discover, nurture and produce the best new playwrights from the widest range of backgrounds.  The 2018 programme has seen a 40% increase in attendance on the previous year and 52% of the audience being first-time visitors to its Shepherd’s Bush home.

With their 2019 season the Bush continues to challenge the unspoken rules of who writes theatre, how they write it, and who it is made for.  From the UK premiere ofGoing Through, which tells the story of a young girl’s journey across borders while seamlessly mixing English and British Sign Language to Caryl Phillip’s Strange Fruitcontinuing the ground-breaking Passing The Baton initiative;  from BABYLON: Beyond Borders, an international collaboration between four theatres that will be simultaneously live-streamed across four different cities, to And The Rest of Me Floats, a bold exploration of gender in collaboration with LGBTQ+ company Outbox..

It also continues its commitment to showcasing both home-grown and international talent. 4 out of 7 of the 2019 productions have been written or co-written by International writers, and 3 out of 7 have been written or co-written by writers from the UK.

Madani Younis said, ‘My time at the Bush Theatre is undoubtedly one of my proudest achievements to date. The Bush invested in a vision that celebrated not just the best of theatre but the best of our country’s inherent culture.  

With its global outlook, I feel this season shows the best of who we are and stands for the values that we have attempted to build over the past seven years.  It’s a season of creatives who have inspired me, continue to inspire me and I hope will inspire our audiences. ‘

The Bush also today announced UNWRAPPED, a holiday season of cabaret, comedy and theatre including Richard Gadd, Sh!t Theatre, Harriet Kemsley and Gingzilla which runs for a two-week season this December.

2019 season

Bush Theatre presents

BABYLON FESTIVAL

WORLD PREMIERE

4 – 16 Feb

Press Night for BABYLON: Beyond Borders: 13 Feb

A tower of languages. A city of immense cultural creativity. A people’s journey.

BABYLON is a two-week festival celebrating the global influences and experiences of Black and Brown people, presented by Bush Theatre’s Tobi Kyeremateng and Ruthie Osterman.

Week one invites cultural innovators to transform the Bush Theatre with a series of takeovers under three strands: LOUD – music gigs by artists such asTouching Bass, Sam Wise and Nabihah Iqbal, SPEAKS – live podcast shows and kitchen-table discussions from The Receipts Podcast, gal-dem, and more, and RESIDENTS – main space takeovers from collectives such as Skin Deep and The Cocoa Butter Club.

BABYLON: Beyond Borders is a fusion of live music, spoken word and movement, performed across London, New York, Johannesburg and Sao Paolo in a celebration of cross-border solidarity and creativity. Four extraordinary theatres, each deeply rooted in their own community, collaborate and explore their relationship to land, language and migration.

Tobi Kyeremateng is a theatre, festival and live performance producer.  She is currently Producer at Apples and Snakes.   In 2013 she assisted in producing Ovalhouse Theatre’s site-specific piece The Street and joined BAC as Junior Producer until 2016.  She was part of the Old Vic 12 2016 cohort, where she produced Joe White’s play Pagans.  Tobi is the co-founder of the Black Ticket Project, an initiative that aims to make theatre accessible to black young people.

Ruthie Osterman is a theatre director, playwright, performer and drama teacher who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the school of Dramatic Arts in Tel-Aviv.  Work includes multiple international collaborations and performances in London, Israel, Poland and India.  She is a member of the Lincoln Centre Director’s Lab in NYC and was recognised as a promising artist and endorsed for an Exceptionally Talented Artist Visa for the UK by the Arts Council of England in 2015.​

The first instalment of UP NEXT, a Bush Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre partnership with Artistic Directors of the Future.

The UP NEXT initiative is funded by the Arts Council England Sustained Theatre grant. BABYLON is generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.  The BABYLON: Beyond Borders international collaboration is made possible with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Outbox Theatre in association with the Bush Theatre present

AND THE REST OF ME FLOATS 

Written and Devised by the company

Directed by Ben Buratta

Design by Rūta Irbīte

Sound Design by Dominic Kennedy

Lighting Design by Jess Bernberg

Movement Director Coral Messam

Cast includes Josh-Susan Enright, Barry Fitzgerald, Elijah W Harris, Emily Joh Miller, Tamir Amar Pettet and Yasmin Zadeh.

20 Feb– 16 Mar

Press Night 22 Feb

I was born in 1994, then came windows 95,
And I would dive online to be the true me –
A 2cm avatar with a denim mini and a high pony.
Online all the time, to avoid conversation and the frustration of being a he, she, they or me…
I felt free.

And The Rest Of Me Floats is all about the messy business of gender. Performers from across the trans, non-binary, and queer communities weave together autobiographical performance, movement, pop songs, stand-up and dress-up in this anarchic celebration of gender expression and identity.

Playful and powerful, And The Rest Of Me Floats explores how it feels to live in a society where you are regularly categorised and policed. ‘Do you see me?’ Beyond the questions, the confusion, and the anger – ‘do you really see me?’

Outbox have been making theatre queerly since 2010 in collaboration with LGBTQ+ performers, artists and communities to tell stories in bold and exciting ways.

Ben Buratta is founder and artistic director of Outbox. For Outbox he has directed Affection (The Glory), HOOKUP (Hackney Showroom, Contact), You Could Move (Arcola, Contact), Reach Out and Touch Me (Shoreditch Town Hall), and The Front Room (Drill Hall, mac) and curated and produced Outbox Snapshots (Arcola). Other credits include Rocket Girl (Minack Theatre), Quirks (Southwark Playhouse), Tasty (Arcola), and a wide range of projects and productions for communities across the UK.

Loose Tongue and HighTide in association with Bush Theatre present

THE TRICK

By Eve Leigh

Directed by Roy Alexander Weise

WORLD PREMIERE

19 Feb– 23 Mar

Prior to a national tour

Press Night – 25 Feb

‘Of course you take me away from the world, and who cares….. you’re the best reason I know to wake up.’

Mira’s husband, Jonah, died seven months ago, but that doesn’t mean that either of them are ready to let him go.

The Trick is a magic show about getting older and coming to terms with loss. Ghosts, goldfish, mediums, and sleight-of-hand collide in this unpredictable exploration of ageing and grief.

Eve Leigh is a playwright and theatre-maker. She was the recipient of the 2017 Royal Court commission for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; with her play,Spooky Action at a Distance, produced by the Royal Court, RWCMD, and Gate Theatre. She was the first artist-in-residence at the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece. Her plays Silent Planet and Stone Face were produced by the Finborough Theatre and published by Oberon Books. Stone Face was shortlisted for three Offies, including Best New Play. Other plays include The Curtain (Young Vic Taking Part), Plunder (Young Vic Taking Part), Red Sky at Night (Bush Theatre), Rapture (Soho Theatre), Enough (Birmingham REP Young Rep). Eve was dramaturg on How To Win Against History (Young Vic). Upcoming commissions include work for the Bush Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Place/DanceEast, 36 МАЙМУНИ (Sofia), and DOCK11 (Berlin).

Director Roy Alexander Weise is the 19th annual winner of the James Menzies-Kitchin Award and directed his critically-acclaimed, sell-out production of The Mountaintopby Katori Hall at the Young Vic. He is shortlisted for the Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award 2018’.  Theatre credits include: Nine Night (National Theatre, Trafalgar Studios), Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503), Heretic Voices (Arcola Theatre); Jekyll and Hyde (National Youth Theatre); Dead Don’t Floss (National Theatre); The Ugly One (Park Theatre, Buckland Theatre Company); The Dark (Fuel & Ovalhouse); Zero For The Young Dudes (Young & Talented in association with NT Connections); The Mountaintop(Young Vic); Primetime (Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre); and Stone Face (Finborough Theatre). Assistant Director credits include: Hangmen (Royal Court and West End); X,Escaped Alone, You For Me For You, Primetime 2015, Violence and Son, Who Cares, Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Albion, We Are Proud To Present… (Bush Theatre) and The Serpent’s Tooth (Talawa/Almeida Theatre). For Television, Roy was Trainee Director on Invisible (Red Room/Ballet Boys/Channel 4). Roy has previously worked at the Royal Court as the Trainee Director, at the Bush Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith as the BBC Theatre Fellow and at The Red Room as Associate Artist. Roy is now Associate Director at the Harts Theatre Company and Lead Acting Tutor at Young & Talented School of Stage & Screen.

Loose Tongue is a production company that finds, commissions, premieres, and showcases exceptional new writing. The company’s first production was immersive audio installation Hotel Europe, created by Isley Lynn, David Ralf and Philipp Ehmann. This was followed by the premiere of Sea Fret by Tallulah Brown, at Old Red Lion Theatre, before a performance at HighTide Festival 2017 in the play’s spiritual home of Aldeburgh. Producer David Ralf is Executive Director of The Bunker Theatre. Other productions include Devil With the Blue Dress (The Bunker), Brimstone and Treacle, The Wild Party, Steel Magnolias (The Hope Theatre). Producer Matt Maltby founded Pint-Sized. He co-created Earlsfield Stories for Tara Theatre with Jatinder Verma MBE, co-produced Fabric by Abi Zakarian at Soho Theatre and is New Work Co-Ordinator at The Bunker Theatre.

HighTide is a theatre company and charity based in East Anglia that has an unparalleled eleven-year history of successfully launching the careers of emerging British playwrights.  Through their annual festivals and national touring, HighTide have discovered, provided creative development to and/or staged new plays by Luke Barnes, Adam Brace, E V Crowe, Elinor Cook, Rob Drummond, Thomas Eccleshare, Theresa Ikoko, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anders Lustgarten, Joel Horwood, Ella Hickson, Harry Melling, Nessah Muthy, Vinay Patel, Nick Payne, Phil Porter, Beth Steel, Al Smith, Sam Steiner, Molly Taylor, Jack Thorne and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig.

HighTide have staged productions with the highest quality theatres across the UK, from the Traverse in Edinburgh, to the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Theatre Royal Bath and the National Theatre in London. Recent productions and co-productions include: Heroine (HighTide/Theatr Clwyd), Kanye The First (HighTide/Paul Jellis/Marlowe Theatre), Girls (HighTide/Talawa/Soho Theatre), Harrogate (HighTide/house/Royal Court) & In Fidelity (HighTide/Traverse Theatre).

A Bush Theatre co-production with the Institut Français du Royaume Uni as part of its Cross Channel Theatre and En Scène! Programmes

GOING THROUGH

by Estelle Savasta

Translated by Kirsten Hazel Smith

Directed by Omar Elerian

UK PREMIERE

28 Mar– 27 Apr

Press Night – 3 Apr

‘It’s not always children’s stories that happen to children.’

When the men come to drive her away, Youmna cuts off Nour’s hair. And so begins one girl’s journey. By bus, by lorry, into the sound of gun-shots, through adolescence and across borders. All she can take with her is a little box and her memories of Youmna. Youmna, who told her that everything grows back – grass, desires, branches, even hair.

Going Through is the UK premiere of the critically acclaimed French play Traversée. This bilingual production seamlessly mixes English and British Sign Language and is directed by Bush Theatre Associate Director Omar Elerian (Misty, NASSIM). It is translated by Kirsten Hazel Smith.Writer and director Estelle Savasta runs ‘Hippolyte a mal au cœur’, a company creating ground-breaking bilingual work based in France. Her first play Seule dans ma peau d’âne received acclaim at the 2008 Molière awards. Going Through (originally Traversée) premiering at the Bush Theatre is her second play.

Omar Elarian is an award winning Italian /Palestinian theatre director, deviser and performer who trained at Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris.  He joined the Bush in 2012 alongside Madani Younis and since then has been the resident Associate Director.  He is in charge of the Bush’s talent development, leading on the Associate Artists and Project 2036 schemes.  He is also involved in the development and delivery of the Bush’s artistic programme and led the programming of the RADAR festival between 2012 and 2015.  His directing credits for the Bush include Misty by Arinzé Kene, NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour, One Cold Dark Night by Nancy Harris and Islands by Caroline Horton.  As Associate Director, he has worked alongside Madani Younis on the Bush’s productions of The Royale, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines.  Other credits include acclaimed site-specific production The Mill – City of Dreams, Olivier Award nominated You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, Testa di Rame(Italy), Les P’tites Grandes Choses (France) and L’Envers du Décor (France).

Iseult Golden and David Horan in association with The Abbey Theatre (Dublin) and Bush Theatre presents

CLASS

Written and directed by Iseult Golden & David Horan

Set & Costume Design: Maree Kearns
Lighting Design: Kevin Smith
Sound Design: Ivan Birthistle
Sound Design: Vincent Doherty
Cast includes Stephen Jones, Sarah Morris, Will O’Connell

Supported by Culture Ireland

LONDON PREMIERE

7 May – 1 June

Press Night 9 May

‘God. I hate classrooms. Give me the heebie jeebies. Even still.’Brian and Donna’s son is nine years old, and he’s struggling. That’s what his teacher says. Says he should see a psychologist. But Brian and Donna never liked school, never liked teachers.
So are they going to trust this one?
And should they?

CLASS is a ‘hugely entertaining’ (Irish Times) and ‘emotionally explosive’ (Mail on Sunday) confrontation over learning difficulties, love and entitlement. Side-splittingly funny and beautifully observed, with rave reviews, a sold-out run at the Abbey Theatre and a Fringe First Award from Edinburgh, CLASS is new Irish writing at its finest.

***** ‘An inspired look at society through the prism of a parent-teacher meeting’ –  Sunday Times

***** ‘Three terrific performances, two exceptional writers and directors, and one extraordinary brilliant script’ – The Arts Review

Iseult Golden and David Horan are independent theatre artists who have worked together on new adaptations and original work for over a decade. This is their seventh collaboration.

Iseult Golden is an actor, writer and director. Writing work includes: The Roy Rap for the Little Roy Series (Jam Media / CBBC), co-writer on The Importance of Being Whatever (IFTA Winner 2012) and Belonging to Laura (an adaptation of Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde) for Accomplice Television/TV3 (IFTA Nomination 2009). She also wrote Fireworks, a one-act play for Tall Tales Theatre Company (published as part of the collection TXTs) as well as a number of episodes for Irish soap, Fair City. Directing highlights include: Connected by Will Irvine and Karl Quinn (Fringe/Project Arts Centre), Payback by Marion O’Dwyer and Maria McDermottroe, Mangan’s Last Gasp by Gerard Lee and Buridan’s Ass by SR Plant (Bewley’s Cafe Theatre). Iseult also teaches at the Lir Academy of Dramatic Art.

David Horan is a theatre director and writer, Artistic Director of Bewley’s Café Theatre and a core Acting Tutor at the Lir National Academy. Directing highlights include: Beowulf: the Blockbuster by Bryan Burroughs, These Halcyon Daysby Deirdre Kinahan (Edinburgh Fringe First Winner), Moment by Deirdre Kinahan (Bush Theatre, London), Moll by John B Keane (Gaiety, MCD/Verdant Productions), Pineappleby Phillip McMahon (Calipo/DTF), Hue and Cry by Deirdre Kinahan (IAC New York Times Critics Pick, Bewleys), Macbethand Dancing at Lughnasaby Brian Friel (Second Age), In The Next Room by Sarah Ruhl and Three Winters by Tena Stivicic (Lir Academy)and the award-winning Tick my Box!(Inis Theatre) among others.

China Plate and Bush Theatre present

YVETTE

By Urielle Klein-Mekongo

Directed by Gbolahan Obisesan

Lighting Design by Azusa Ono

14 May – 1 June

Press Night 17 May

‘I see the way that butters-fat-lipped-troll-Patrice looks at him, now she’s the kinda lighty that finks she’s too nice.’Evie is thirteen and lives in Neasden with her Mum. She wants to tell us about something… her crush on Lewis, trying to be a woman, friends, virginity, garage remixes, hello kitty underwear… an ‘Uncle’ lurking in the corner of her story.  She wants to make us laugh, she’s pretty good at it. She wants to tell us something, but she daren’t let it out.  Based a true story, Yvette is a one-woman show with original music and spoken word about a stolen childhood and growing up with a secret. Commissioned by Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Association with Hull 2017.Winner, Young Harts Writing Fest Audience Favourite 2017, Kings Head Theatre Stella Wilkie Award 2017, The East15 Pulse Award 2017.

Urielle Klein-Mekongo is a writer, theatre maker singer/songwriter, performer and a member of Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writer’s Group.  After first entering training via the National Youth Theatre’s Playing Up course in 2013, she went on to study Acting and Contemporary Theatre at East 15 where she graduated in 2017. Yvette marks Urielle’s first professional outing as a writer/performer. Other credits include Swipe (The Arcola with NYT), Three Sisters (East 15). She was selected as one of the writers for the Lyric Fest Gala 2017.

Director Gbolahan Obisesan recently held the role of Genesis Fellow/Associate Director at the Young Vic Theatre. In 2018, Gbolahan’s adaptation of the Booker Prize-nominated novel The Fisherman will premiere at HOME, Manchester (New Perspectives Theatre). Previous directing credits include: 2017 Olivier nominated Cuttin it(Young Vic, Birmingham Rep, Sheffield Crucible, Royal Court, Yard Theatre) Off The Page, a short film for the Royal Court/Guardian’s microplays season, We are Proud to Present… (Bush Theatre), and The Web (Young Vic).

China Plate is an independent theatre studio that works with artists, venues, festivals and funders

to challenge the way performance is made, who it’s made by and who gets to experience it. The

company is currently collaborating with Caroline Horton, Chris Thorpe / Rachel Chavkin,

Contender Charlie, Dan Jones, Sarah Punshon, Rachel Bagshaw, Inspector Sands, Joan Clevillé,

David Edgar, Katie Lyons / Ella Grace and Ben Wright.

The Bush Theatre presents

STRANGE FRUIT

By Caryl Phillips

Directed by Nancy Medina

12 June – 20 July

Press Night 17 June

‘I go half way round the world and back thinking I’d made some sort of discovery and come back to find the same damn lies, the same white lies, the same black lies.’

Alvin and Errol can’t picture much of a future for themselves. They’re young, black and living in England in the 1980s, with an entire country and political system set against them. Instead they focus firmly on their past – the sunny Caribbean and heroic father they left behind when their mother brought them to England twenty years ago. But when Alvin returns home from his grandfather’s funeral in the Caribbean, a new version of their past emerges, and the two brothers are caught in a desperate struggle to unearth the truth about their existence.

Powerful and compelling, Strange Fruit by Caryl Phillips (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) is the story of a family caught between two cultures, and the un-crossable no man’s land that can come between parents and their children.

Strange Fruit is the latest edition in the Passing the Baton series, following Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking in 2018.

Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts and came to Britain at the age of four months. His plays include Strange Fruit (1980), Where There is Darkness (1982), The Shelter (1983) and The Wasted Years (1984). His dramas and documentaries for radio and television include the three-hour film of his own novel The Final Passage and the screenplay for the films Playing Away (1986) and Merchant Ivory’s adaptation of V.S.Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur (2001).

Nancy Medina is originally from Brooklyn NY, and currently based in Bristol.  She is the 2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner and will be collaborating with Royal & Derngate and English Touring Theatre on a production in 2019.  In 2017 she was a Genesis Director at the Young Vic.  She is an acting tutor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Course Leader for a post 16 Professional Acting Diploma at Boomsatsuma.    Her directing credits include: Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), When They Go Low (NT Connections/Sherman Theatre), Yellowman (Young Vic), Romeo and Juliet (GB Theatre), As You Like it (GB Theatre), Curried Goat and Fish Fingers (Bristol Old Vic), Dogtag (Theatre West), Strawberry & Chocolate (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Dutchman (Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Persistence of Memory (Rondo Theatre).

Bush Theatre and HighTide present

RUST

By Kenneth Emson

Directed by Eleanor Rhode

26 Jun – 27 July

Press Night 1 July

‘Rule number eleven: We don’t talk about them. Not here. They don’t exist here.’

Nadia and Daniel have a secret. In fact, they have quite a few. They’ve just signed on the dotted line for a studio flat. Under a pseudonym, naturally – Mr and Mrs White. After years of school pick-ups, TV takeaways, and the day to day drudgery of married life, this is their chance to wipe the slate clean. But as much as they try and redefine the rules, and themselves, the outside world is closing in.

Ultra-contemporary, sexy and funny, Rust pushes the boundaries of trust, love and lust to the limit.

Rust is the second collaboration between Bush Theatre and HighTide in 2019, following The Trick.

Kenneth Emson is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include Quadrophenia (Mercury Theatre), Parkway Dreams (Sir John Mills Theatre) Terrorism (Bush Theatre), This Must be the Place (Vault Festival – co-written with Brad Birch) and Plastic (Old Red Lion). He was co-creator, co-writer and associate producer on the BAFTA Craft, SXSW and Prix Italia nominated The Last Hours of Laura K and adapted Agatha Christie’s The Coming of Mister Quin which was nominated for a BAFTA CYMRU games award. He has written for EastEnders, Doctors, BBC Radio 3 and 4 and has been shortlisted for the Bruntwood, Red Planet and Papatango Prizes as well as winning the Adrienne Benham, Off West End Adopt a Playwright and Mercury/Weinberger Playwriting awards.

Eleanor Rhode is an Associate Artist for HighTide. Her most recent work includes the critically acclaimed world premiere of Boudica by Tristan Bernays for the Globe Theatre, Tristan Bernays’ award-winning musical play Teddy at Southwark Playhouse and The Vaults, and comedy musical Thor and Loki at Edinburgh Fringe and HighTide Festivals. This Christmas, Eleanor will direct Wendy and Peter Pan at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

In 2009 she co-founded Snapdragon Productions to bring neglected and unknown works to new audiences. Work for Snapdragon includes the critically acclaimed production of Toast by Richard Bean (UK Tour and New York), which was nominated for Best Touring Production at the 2016 UK Theatre Awards and the world premiere ofTeddy by Tristan Bernays and Dougal Irvine, which won Best New Musical at the 2016 Off West End Awards.

Other recent work includes: Frankenstein (Watermill Theatre and Wilton’s Music Hall), Terrorism (Bush Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Watford Palace Theatre), When We Were Women (Orange Tree Theatre), Toast and Thark (both Park Theatre), Generous, The Drawer Boy, and A Life (all Finborough Theatre) and the world premiere of the musical For All That for Centerstage Theater, Seattle.  Eleanor trained at Mountview and the National Theatre Studio.

Further work by the Bush Theatre

Project 2036 is a three-year programme, currently in its third year, which offers a BAMER playwright, director and producer a bursary each, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust.  Census data suggests that within 20 years half of all young people in London will be of dual heritage.  We see that change on our streets.  We want to see that change on our stages and behind the scenes across our city.  We fear as an industry we are reacting much too slowly and in some cases hardly at all.  It is crucial that we create opportunities for a rich diversity of artists to make work on our main stages and so redefine the canon of British theatre.  Working collaboratively with their peers, each year sees three creatives develop work tied directly to our studio. This year the recipients of the bursary are director Emily Aboud, writer Bisola Elizabeth Alabi and producer Salome Wagaine. Project 2036 is generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Dismantle in association with the Bush Theatre

Dismantle This Room, an immersive escape-room experience which had a sell-out run at the Bush in July 2018 as part of Project 2036, will transfer to the Royal Court in April 2019.

Performance of our Community Associate Company, The Neighbourhood Company, in January 2019. The Community Associate Companies programme sees the Bush Theatre engage with two local community groups each year in a way that is long-lasting, meaningful, creative and inspirational. This project forms part of our strategy to create and demonstrate a model of theatre that is culturally democratic and embedded in its local community. The Neighbourhood Company are a group of 25 local people, between the ages of 10 and 85, from the local community who have been working with the Bush Theatre and Lead Artist Molly Taylor as one of our Community Associate Company to create an original, devised performance which will be staged in the Auditorium at the Bush Theatre.

Bush Theatre recently announced its new youth engagement project, the Young Writers Group – a new 12-week playwriting course for young writers aged 14 – 17.  Eight young people from West London will take part in the course at the theatre which will see them explore different ways of story-telling, writing techniques, conducive ways of offering feedback, and workshopping their plays. They will also take part in an intensive four-day rehearsal period where they will gain experience in producing and directing their and their peers’ plays. Their plays will be performed in a showcase performance attended by agents and industry professionals in April 2019. A taster workshop taking place on November 13 offers young people the chance to find out more and try out some of the writing exercises.

This course will be facilitated by playwright, director and former Literary Assistant at the Bush Theatre, Sophie Paterson.

The Young Writers Group and Young People Programme is generously funded by the Noel Coward Foundation, Hammersmith United Charities, Chapman Charitable Trust, The Mercers Charitable Foundation, Teale Charitable Trust and Kirsten Scott Memorial Trust.

Applications for the Young Writers Group at the Bush Theatre are open from October – 17 December 2018 and application forms can be downloaded here:

https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/community/young-writers-group/

Applications should be emailed to hollysmith@bushtheatre.co.uk

Offers will be made on 7 January 2019.

Harts Theatre Company and Bush Theatre presents Young Harts Writing Festival 2019

Young Harts Writing Festival is a creatively accessible youth new writing festival on 3 & 4 May which merges the gap between emerging artists and professional artists. It’s a festival that is inclusive of and accessible to talent and audiences with disabilities.

Through an online competition, five plays written by emerging young writers will be chosen. They will receive a free writing master class and one month to redraft their plays. Each young writer will be partnered with a professional writer as a mentor and compete with their mentors in a two-day festival where one writer will win the audience favourite vote each night. The twist? The audience don’t know who has written the play when they cast their vote.

YHWF 2019 will see an all-female professional writing and directing team.

NT Connections at the Bush Theatre

As part of the National Theatre’s Connections festival, the Bush Theatre will host 7 young companies from 29 April to 2 May.

Each year the NT commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK’s most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow.  300 youth theatre companies and over 6,000 young people from every corner of the UK are producing a Connections play this year.

Ticket prices

Count Me In: £10 (Theatre)

Adult: From £20 (Theatre) and £10 (Studio)

Unwrapped: £15 (£12.50 concessions)

Count Me In tickets are just £10 and are available for performances in the Theatre. These are unreserved tickets which will be allocated to a seat on the day of performance. Audience members might not be sitting next to the people they booked with but will be guaranteed a seat.

Concessions: Bush Locals, Senior Citizens, Disabled and Unemployed patrons, and Bush Connect (Students and U26) members will be eligible for concession prices.

Booking:

Phone                   020 8743 5050

In person             Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ

Online                  bushtheatre.co.uk

 

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Interview with producer of This Place We Know, Sophie Watson: “I’d just like to put on record that I’m not advocating putting Billie Piper in a time capsule.”

Sophie Watson
Bush Theatre has taken over the Uxbridge Road while the venue is undergoing a year-long redevelopment project. This Place We Know is a bold series of six commissioned short plays performed in spaces on and around Shepherd’s Bush.
This Place We Know has seen six world premieres of specially commissioned plays; this is a unique example of a theatre redefining what new-writing might do and how it might correspond to the local community. I thought it would be a good idea to chat to the producer behind it all: Sophie Watson.
Watson talks about Arts Council imposing ‘quantitative measures of arts quality’, Billie Piper in Yerma and more.
Sophie Watson

Sophie Watson

Hello! What are you working on at the moment?
The Bush Theatre is currently undergoing some changes that will make us more accessible and more sustainable, in the meantime, we’re out and about producing theatre in West London. We’re in our last week of ‘This Place We Know’ a series of short plays commissioned as a love letter to the Uxbridge Road and next up we’re remounting ‘The Royale’ by Marco Ramirez at the Tabernacle.

What is your most treasured possession?
In my theatre life, my playtext of ‘Many Moons’ by Alice Birch – the first play I ever produced.

Who or what is your biggest influence?
I don’t think I could pick one, I’ve always been so inspired by my colleagues; the team at the Bush are heroes.

The best kind of theatre often breaks the mould, how do you juggle risk-taking with sustainability?
When producing for an organisation you can’t look at a play in isolation, at the Bush we’re constantly looking at a season as a whole and asking ourselves whether we are offering our audiences a balanced programme. An example of that would be working with a playwright that audiences know and love and following that up with someone they may never have heard of, and hopefully there’s enough trust for audiences to come on a journey with us and a new playwright.

This Place We Know brings together a series of specially-commissioned plays in and around Shepherd’s Bush.  How have you prepared for this logistically?
I have been working on this project for many months. We commissioned the writers at the end of 2015 and then my first task was to introduce myself to almost every business on the Uxbridge Road to see whether there might be an opportunity to work together. It’s been important to think outside of the box, we ended up producing a play in a karaoke bar which I didn’t approach at first as I couldn’t imagine pulling it off but there’s a lot of good will in Shepherds Bush.

Gender inequality is a huge problem in the arts, however, there’s no shortage of women working in the arts, have you ever faced obstacles in your career?
This is a challenging industry to find your way in to regardless of gender, but I have to say that broadly I haven’t faced any obstacles that I would attribute to my being a woman. I hope I can use my position to support more women coming up through the industry as well as to profile female artists.

What are your thoughts on Arts Council imposing ‘quantitative measures of arts quality’?
I am sceptical about the introduction of these measures as an accurate way of measuring success. I’m also concerned about the additional administrative burden for organisations. I have read of concerns lately that organisations are carrying too much administrative resource, with some suggesting that this is to the detriment of the art/artists, but I find that a difficult argument to balance when looking at the demands placed on us all.

What would you bury in a time capsule to represent theatre in 2016?
Billie Piper. Is that weird? I can’t stop thinking about her performance in Yerma at the Young Vic this year. Plus, she’d have loads of other interesting stories about pop stardom.

Do you think we’ve become too obsessed with ourselves?
I think that we have always been obsessed with ourselves and with other people; particularly how we look, think and feel in relation to those other people. The difference now is the level of insecurity created by the various modes of presentation available to each and everyone of us. It continues to be the role of theatre to help us answer those questions.

What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
Christmas at Marks and Spencer.  Don’t ask.

What is the best job you’ve ever had?
Producer at the Bush Theatre of course.

Anything you’d like to add?
I’d just like to put on record that I’m not advocating putting Billie Piper in a time capsule.

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