Bush Theatre
Elephant, Bush Studio review - stirring solo show from rising star Anoushka LucasThursday, 27 October 2022It lasts only an interval-free 60 minutes, with an upright piano as its only prop, but Anoushka Lucas’s one-woman show Elephant in the Bush’s Studio space prompts an epic trigger warning. It will discuss “racism, Empire, colonialism, classism,... Read more... |
Clutch, Bush Theatre review - new comedy-drama passes its testThursday, 22 September 2022Max is big and black and Tyler is slight and (very) white, an odd couple trapped in a dual-control car as Max barks out his instructions and Tyler prepares for his driving test. If their relationship is to get started, like the clutch of the... Read more... |
The P Word, Bush Theatre review - persecution and prideSaturday, 17 September 2022Britain is a divided nation, but one of the divisions that we don’t hear that much about is that between Pakistani gay men. Written by Waleed Akhtar (who also stars in this impressively heartfelt two-hander), The P Word is about the differences in... Read more... |
Favour, Bush Theatre review - Ambreen Razia's punchy new tug-of-love dramaMonday, 04 July 2022Where should Leila live — Ilford or Kent? It doesn’t sound like an earth-shattering decision for a 15-year-old to make, but the stakes are higher than they look in Ambreen Razia’s latest play, Favour.Ilford means Leila continuing to live with Noor,... Read more... |
House of Ife, Bush Theatre review - an Ethiopian-British family struggle to decide where 'home' isMonday, 09 May 2022We are in a room in a simply decorated house in northwest London, where an Ethiopian-British family is gathering for a funeral “tea” for 28-year-old Ife, their first-born son and beloved twin brother of aspiring artist Aida. He has died of his crack... Read more... |
Red Pitch, Bush Theatre review - effortlessly and energetically entertainingWednesday, 02 March 2022Football stories are never just about a game — they are also about life and how to live it. In Tyrell Williams’s Red Pitch, his debut play now getting an enthusiastically staging at the Bush Theatre after a shorter version wowed audiences at the... Read more... |
Old Bridge, Bush Theatre review - powerful, poetic and profoundWednesday, 03 November 2021Is the Bosnian conflict of 1992–95 the war that Europe forgot? Maybe, although most fans of new writing for the British stage will remember its massacres as the inciting incident for Sarah Kane’s 1995 modern classic, Blasted. Certainly, this... Read more... |
Lava, Bush Theatre review - poetic writing, mesmerically performedThursday, 22 July 2021What’s in a name? In Benedict Lombe’s incendiary debut play at the Bush Theatre, the answer to this question encompasses a whole continent, an entire existential experience - the Black experience, to be exact - though not in the way that "roots... Read more... |
Harm, Bush Theatre review – isolation, infatuation and intensityMonday, 24 May 2021After months of watching theatre on screens large, medium and tiny, I definitely feel great about going to see a live show again. Of course, it’s not the usual theatre experience, you know, the one with crowds milling around the bar, people... Read more... |
Overflow, Bush Theatre review – fear, fury and funSaturday, 12 December 2020Travis Alabanza is black, trans, queer and proud. And they’ve got a lot to be proud about. In 2016, they were the youngest recipient of the artist in residence post on the Tate workshop programme, and two years later starred in Chris Goode’s wildly... Read more... |
Theatre Lockdown Special 10: Epic plays from the National Theatre and Broadway alongside voices raised in protestThursday, 18 June 2020As lockdown continues, National Theatre at Home has announced its final sequence of plays, and several of the very best are being saved for last. That certainly applies to this week's offering, Small Island, whose dissection of Britain's racist past... Read more... |
The High Table, Bush Theatre review - party on in Lagos and LondonSaturday, 15 February 2020Queer people of colour face a double discrimination: racism and homophobia. Against this sickness of negation and stupidity one of the best antidotes is a culture of celebration. And in this theatre can play its part. At the Bush, last September,... Read more... |