Playwright Chris Bush was born in Sheffield in 1986. In 2007, her first play, Tony! The Blair Musical, was premiered at York Theatre Royal. Since then her productions have included The Assassination of Katie Hopkins at Theatr Clwyd, Pericles at the National Theatre and the Olivier award-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge, with music and lyrics by Richard Hawley, which transfers to the West End in 2024. Bush’s pop musical Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is on tour from 30 November to next March.
1. Book
I’m loving this book by Anita Sethi about walking the Pennine Way. It starts with a description of a racist verbal assault she experiences on a train, and it’s an extraordinary personal piece of travel writing about her relationship with the environment. It has a profound topography of the body: the chapters are broken into “mouth”, “spine”, “skin” – terms that have meanings both within a landscape and in our bodies. It also looks at the historical context: British colonial rule, the Kinder Scout trespass, public rights of way. It’s about who the land is for and who it belongs to.
2. Album
Anohni and the Johnsons: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross
I’ve been obsessed with Anohni for years. For a long time now she’s had one of the most extraordinary voices in pop: the sound she can produce is incredibly unusual and haunting. What feels particularly special about this album is the sense of an artist who’s fully in control of their faculties while also being supremely emotionally honest. These are songs that feel simultaneously full of sorrow and injustice, but there is also a sense of uplift and hope to them.
3. Theatre
The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
I’m not massively familiar with this play – a matriarchal, intergenerational family saga by Federico García Lorca – but what excites me about this production is the team behind it. It’s adapted by Alice Birch, who wrote Anatomy of a Suicide, possibly my favourite contemporary play. Rebecca Frecknall, the director, is probably our primary interpreter of the western canon. The prospect of the two of them taking on Bernarda Alba together feels like it can’t be anything other than brilliant. And then you add Harriet Walter into the mix – what more could you want?
4. Art
A friend took me to this and I was blown away. What I found fascinating, as much as the art itself, was the story that was told by the curation, and how it lays out Guston’s journey from more realistic pictorial painting to abstract expressionism, which he seems to draw towards with a real sense of reluctance, before reimagining himself almost as a cartoonist. I went not knowing anything about the controversies surrounding his paintings of the Ku Klux Klan. To me, it is really speaking about the banality of evil, not trivialising these subjects.
5. Streaming
This is me at my absolute nerdiest. Essentially you’re watching other people, such as comedians and pro-gamers, play Dungeons & Dragons on a streaming outlet called Dropout. I’ve never been particularly drawn to the fantasy world, but what I love about this is that they get world-class comedians telling you really good stories and being incredibly funny and quick. A recent season, Dungeons & Drag Queens, consisted entirely of former Drag Race contestants using their talent as improvisers and comics to fudge their way through playing an ogre or a 4ft fairy. I adore it.
6. Newsletter
Vittles
This is a very socially and politically engaged collection of food writing, restaurant reviews, recipes and so on. It’s broadly about the London food scene but it’s really an interesting mix of life writing that happens to be about food. Then there are deep dives into cultural and social trends, such as Anglo-Chinese takeaways and the historic evolution of specific dishes through various waves of immigration. Often it’s extremely funny and sharp and acerbically written – there is a regular column called The Hater – so they’re not afraid to pull punches or have strong opinions.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is at New Wimbledon theatre, 30 November-2 December, then tours the UK until 16 March 2024
