Red Bus Londinium Life

A founding member of the Bush Theatre’s Young Company, Coral Wylie is both writer and performer in Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew currently playing its World Premiere at the Bush Theatre. An emerging talent, their writing and acting skills bring sincerity and realism in this tender portrait of the complexities of family life in a changing world.

Diaries can hold our innermost secrets and thoughts but who owns them when the author is gone? Pip, played by Wylie, discovers the diaries of a long dead, much beloved, friend of their father. Struggling with their own queer identity, reading the parallel struggles of Duncan (Omari Douglas) as he embarked on early adult life at the eve of the AIDs epidemic, they feel a connection across the generations.

For those of us who lived as AIDs emerged, the bravery of Pip’s parents in hosting Duncan in their home as he died is evident. This was a time of ostracism and vilification, when Princess Diana’s handshake of an AIDs patient was reported around the world. A time when much of the world had the audacity to blame those dying of this new disease for their own fate. The pain of this ravaging of a community is captured here when a fading Duncan cries that he has no friends left.

The lightness and joy in the friendship between Duncan and Craig (Wil Johnson) is gentle and affectionate until Craig is roaring with grief that he must lose his friend. This insight opens both the audience and Pip to more sympathy for Craig as he clumsily navigates his own child’s queerness, twenty years later. Johnson ably captures both the younger, freer and older more-buttoned up versions of Craig.

Mother Lorin, too (deftly portrayed by Pooky Quesnel), is out of her depth navigating her child’s new name, new life, uni drop out confusion but is muddling her way to try her best.

Nature and gardening is woven throughout: from Craig disappearing to the allotment to escape family life via Sappho’s violets to an exploration of the fluidity of gender in the plant kingdom. While this part of the storyline is interesting and important, the play was very long and perhaps some of these speeches could have had the same impact in a more pruned format.

Wylie has been in both the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group. This play, Lavender, was shortlisted for The Alfred Fagon Award 2023. The roots have undoubtedly been laid for a flourishing career.