Review: TENDER, Bush Theatre

A queer romance-thriller mash-up sounds an ambitious undertaking, so one must applaud writer Eleanor Tindall and director Emily Aboud for giving it a go. However, this revival at the Bush Theatre in west London doesn't quite come together, despite laudable performances from a young, animated cast.

First performed at the Bush Theatre two years ago, Tender's about Ivy (Nadi Kemp-Sayfi) and Ash (Francesca Amewudah-Rivers) – two 30-something women who meet in a cafe and become besotted with one another. Of course, gay love (well, any kind of love, actually) never runs smooth. Ivy has a creepy boyfriend, Max, and creepy brother, Cas (both of whom are also played by Amewudah-Rivers, more on this later).

The set functions as a sort of character too. It's Ash's new flat. And maybe Ivy's way back from when she was a child (or so I derive, but I might be wrong). A pulsating yellow wall's represented by a billowing curtain. Sound designer Ellie Isherwood goes into overdrive with spooky effects and music. Is the place haunted, or does it represent the mental states the women are at in various stages? Or both?

I quite like a touch of ambiguity, but I did find Tender a bit confusing. The playscript suggests that although the show's been written for two characters, it could have a cast of three or four. I think there would be more clarity and perhaps more much-needed tension if the men's somewhat cliched parts were cast, instead of Amewudah-Rivers voicing their parts upstage on a microphone. She does her best, but this tripling up doesn't really work.

Having said that there's some excellent, quick-fire dialogue here, and even some laughs (although the gags around an abortion do fall a bit flat). Some of the lines are missed, alas, due to poor projection and staging.

At times there is too much dialogue; a great deal of telling and not enough showing. Mercifully, there's the exception of some beautifully choreographed movements when the women have sex for the first time. There were some deep emotions evoked here, which made the characters wholly believable.

Kemp-Sayfi, who played Ivy in the original production in 2024, offers us a confused young woman who's discovering she's gay and is grappling with coming out. She's good at coming up with jokes and wry asides, but maybe a few more serious and deeper revelations about her experience would add texture to the production.

It's easy to see why Amewuhad-Rivers won the Ian Charleson Award last year for her role as Juliet in Jamie Lloyd's Romeo and Juliet. She steals every scene in an assured performance as a woman who's kidding herself that she's having the time of her life, while nursing hangovers and trying to exit a dangerous relationship.

Tindall says she wanted to write about two lost people who don't realise they're lost and explore how they find a connection. She partly succeeds, but the sub-plot about women burying pieces of themselves in a wall that moves and breathes is not thrilling and doesn't coalesce easily with the gay romance.

Tender runs at the Bush Theatre until August 1

Photo credits: Harry Elletson