Bush Theatre announces 50th Birthday season

Photo credit: PA

On 7 April, London’s Bush Theatre celebrates 50 years of discovering and developing new writing, directors, creatives, and acting talent. Its 50th birthday programme is comprised entirely of new work they have commissioned and developed.

Plays featured in the season include House Of Ife by Beru Tessema, Favour by Ambreen Razia, The P Word by Waleed Akhtar, Paradise Now! by Margaret Perry, Sleepova by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, Invisible by Nikhil Parmar and August In England, written and performed by Lenny Henry. The plays highlight issues such as family, inequality, race and sexuality.

Also included in the season is a series of Bush Retrospective discussions and performances with writers whose work has appeared at the theatre and the Bush Young Company. The events begin in May with Jonathan Harvey and Beautiful Thing.

The 50th birthday year also gives those donating to Bush’s New Writing Fund the opportunity to double their contribution through matched funding. The fund was launched this year and aims to raise £100,000 to support the next generation of new writing talent.

The Bush Theatre’s Artistic Director Lynette Linton said: “Our 50th birthday season at the Bush is a celebration of half a century of doing what we do best; providing for and reflecting the community around us, and commissioning plays which give voice to unheard and marginalised voices, often during difficult times.

“Looking back at the plays produced both at our original home above a pub on Shepherd’s Bush Green and now our thriving building on the Uxbridge Road, the common thread has been to create debate, to broaden audiences’ horizons, and most importantly to entertain. It would be impossible to produce this work without the support of our audiences and donors and those donating today may well be helping develop the next Arinzé Kene or Victoria Wood.”

Tickets for plays in the 50th birthday season can be booked here.