Bush Theatre
Albion, Bush TheatreSaturday, 20 September 2014![]() Opening on the day after the Scottish Referendum, Chris Thompson’s new play has a timely, even incendiary, title. It also recalls the sad little song ‘Albion’ by Pete Doherty and Babyshambles. This time, however, The Albion is the name of an East... Read more... |
First Person: Gotta Have Faith?Thursday, 26 June 2014![]() A still Sunday morning in late October… the sky monotone grey… my friend and I are on a fact-finding mission in Jackson, Mississippi. We drive to the outskirts of the city, take a left onto Hanging Moss Road, and see ahead of us, in isolation among... Read more... |
We Are Proud To Present..., Bush TheatreMonday, 10 March 2014![]() The full title of Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, first produced in Chicago in 2012, is deliberately gauche and in need of editing. No review is complete without it, however, so here it is: We Are Proud To Present A Presentation About The Herero... Read more... |
Josephine and I, Bush TheatreSunday, 21 July 2013![]() Cush Jumbo could very easily have put on a hit show about Josephine Baker. There would have been a chorus line of flappers, replete with spangles and feathers. She would have belted out some of the more enduringly popular hits from Baker’s glory... Read more... |
Britten and Poulenc at the Cheltenham Music FestivalThursday, 11 July 2013![]() "Britten or Poulenc?" The question may seem a fatuous one, geared to the 100th anniversary of the Englishman's birth and 50 years since the Frenchman's death. Yet it certainly livens up what would otherwise be the usual dreary artists' biographies,... Read more... |
Three Birds, Bush TheatreSaturday, 23 March 2013![]() The best horror stories take place in mundane surroundings. The envelope of the ordinary gives a context of credibility to the practically incredible. In Janice Okoh’s new play, which won the 2011 Bruntwood prize at the Royal Exchange theatre in... Read more... |
Mudlarks, Bush TheatreSaturday, 22 September 2012![]() The popular image of the state-of-the-nation play is that of a large-scale, big-cast drama that has an epic time span and lots of highly articulate speeches that analyse the way we are. But sometimes a small-cast play with a much more modest range... Read more... |
Chalet Lines, Bush TheatreFriday, 13 April 2012![]() When Madani Younis became the new artistic director of the Bush, some questioned his commitment to new writing, while others asked what he would bring to this small but high-profile venue. With this, his inaugural production, which opened last night... Read more... |
Snookered, Bush TheatreFriday, 02 March 2012![]() What’s it like to be young, British and Muslim in the age of austerity? In an era of global financial crisis, high unemployment and shrinking pay packets, what can this country offer British Asian youth? New talent Ishy Din poses these questions in... Read more... |
Our New Girl, Bush TheatreWednesday, 18 January 2012![]() Suddenly, it seems as if the brawling youngster that was once new writing for the British theatre has grown up. Now, all it wants to talk about is the family, about having babies, and about what it’s like to be a parent. In Nancy Harris’s new play,... Read more... |
The Kitchen Sink, Bush TheatreThursday, 24 November 2011![]() This play has a deliberately evocative title: not only does it suggest overabundance (“everything but the kitchen sink”), but also a whole genre of playwriting (Kitchen Sink Drama). At the same time, the kitchen is the heart of family life. In fact... Read more... |
Sixty-Six Books, Bush TheatreMonday, 17 October 2011![]() Sometimes theatre people do mad things. Like stay up all night and the following day to “celebrate” the King James Bible and a theatre’s house-move to new premises. Its 400th year has been a good year for that collection of stories currently being... Read more... |
