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