Tender, Bush Theatre ★★★½

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers dazzles in a queer thriller that doesn’t quite explain itself

Eleanor Tindall‘s Tender began life in the Bush Studio in 2024, where it sold out, and has now been upscaled into the Holloway Theatre, the Bush’s main house, running until 1 August. Emily Aboud directs the same production team as the original.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Ash is utterly riveting. She delivers diary-like narration with a natural charm and flair that is entirely believable, and holds the space with every move. The audience is completely compelled to follow her story. She also plays two other, male, characters (voices only) and is wholly plausible in each, including a moment of mansplaining chair position delivered with her back to us.

Ivy (Nadi Kemp-Sayfi) is equally convincing as she circles round her feelings for Ash.

The intimacy work (Tommy Ross-Williams and Sophie Cooch) is extraordinary. At times it almost verges on choreography, the two of them reflecting each other’s movements, edging closer, moving away, flirtatious, teasing, like a courtly dance. The first night the two of them go out together is very funny, played almost entirely through physical comedy.

Ivy’s boyfriend, trying to be a good guy and not quite managing it, runs as a subplot and work well to demonstrate her increasing distance from him..

Being in Shepherd’s Bush, the scenes about protestors outside an abortion clinic feel all too accurate. The former Marie Stopes clinic on Mattock Lane in Ealing, just down the road, was the first in the UK to have a buffer zone implemented around it to protect vulnerable women from harassment. The local MP, Rupa Huq, supported the ban, and her office received plastic foetus dolls in the post along with being called a murderer for her trouble.

For me, the emerging love story worked, as did Ash’s back story and where the two women’s paths converged.

Where I struggled was with the more surreal, thriller elements of the piece. I understood where the ending was heading, but elements along the way, the pulsing walls of the flat, a preoccupation with eating meat, never quite connected for me. I found myself hunting for some equivalent of deus ex machina, except here there is no god revealed at the end to explain what has gone before. Whether that is a deliberate choice (the Bush’s own publicity promises a story that is “thrilling and surreal”) or simply a plot that never quite lands, I couldn’t say for certain. There were elements of the story I failed to understand.

The charm of the central relationship carries the play, so the confusion feels forgivable rather than fatal, but I yearned for more clarity by the end.

Tickets range from £10 to £35, with matinee, relaxed, captioned and audio-described performances available across the run, so there is flexibility for readers wanting to plan around access needs or budget. On the night I attended, the audience was small, England were playing in the World Cup semi-final at the time, but warm.

Go for Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. She is worth seeing whatever you make of the rest.

Tender runs at the Bush Theatre until 1 August.

[Thank you to the Bush Theatre for a gifted ticket for an honest review.]

Photo credit: Harry Elletson

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