Gay London Life | June '26 Edition - Magazine - Page 24
Tender
Returns To
The Bush This
Summer
After selling out the Bush Theatre Studio in
2024, Tender is coming back this summer in
a larger-scale production, transferring to the
Bush’s main house for a strictly limited run
from 9 July to 1 August.
Written by Eleanor Tindall and directed by
praised the show for balancing tenderness with
Theatre’s strong track record for developing
Emily Aboud, Tender isn’t your standard queer
unease, creating something that feels both deeply
queer work and giving it room to grow. Artistic
romance. Part thriller, part surreal love story,
romantic and genuinely unsettling.
Director Taio Lawson described the return as
the play follows two women circling loneliness,
Producer Jessie Anand says the response
part of the theatre’s mission to champion stories
desire, repression, and the strange things we
to the original run made it clear there was an
that reflect “our collective place in the world”,
leave buried inside ourselves.
appetite for queer stories that aren’t tidy or
while giving new writing the rare chance to evolve
Ivy appears to have life mapped out,
predictable. “Audiences embraced Tender in
beyond an initial run.
boyfriend, flat, future, all neatly in place. Except
a really special way,” she explains. “It showed
With its dreamlike atmosphere, sharp emotional
for one thing she refuses to think about.
there’s a real hunger for queer love stories that
writing, and dark undercurrent running beneath the
Meanwhile Ash is trying to recover from a bad
are complex and twisty.”
romance, Tender looks set to become one of the
standout queer theatre events of the summer.
relationship while settling into a new flat where
That tension sits right at the heart of the
the wallpaper pulses and the building itself feels
play. Rather than presenting queerness through
strangely alive. When the pair collide, attraction
easy tropes or familiar coming-out beats, Tender
Tender runs at the Bush Theatre
quickly spirals into obsession, and something
leans into longing, uncertainty, fantasy, and fear.
from 9 July to 1 August 2026.
darker begins creeping in around the edges.
It’s emotionally intimate while also feeling quietly
Book tickets at www.bushtheatre.co.uk
The production was one of the Bush’s
menacing, with moments that drift into body
breakout Studio hits last year, with audiences
horror and surrealism without losing sight of the
embracing its mix of emotional vulnerability,
relationship at its centre.
horror undertones, and queer intimacy. Reviews
24
The transfer also continues the Bush
