Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is a phenomenal presence in Tender, a queer thriller at London's Bush theatre that blends horror, romance, and surrealism. However, the play leaves a little too much unexplained, frustrating audiences despite its gripping ride.
A dark romance between two women
This strange and alluring two-hander first premiered in the theatre's smaller studio space two years ago. It follows a dark romance between two women: one in a long-term relationship with a man, the other experimenting with women. Both are tormented in different ways.
Nadi Kemp-Sayfi returns as Ivy, while the abundantly talented Amewudah-Rivers takes the role of Ash. Amewudah-Rivers is taut, sexy, and disturbed, her performance so commanding that she eclipses everything else on stage. She wrings every last drop of poetry from Eleanor Tindall's script, which can be described as a queer romance, a haunted house story, or a horror. It twists and springs surprises, glinting with dangerous promise, though not all of that promise is fully realised.
Haunted set and sound design
The back wall of Alys Whitehead's set is a patterned sheet that ripples and rumbles with unexplained noise in Ash's flat, thanks to fabulously antsy sound design by Ellie Isherwood. The home seems possessed by something undefined, reminiscent of the shade in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. Just as that short story features a controlling husband, Tender includes an abusive male character in Ash's ex-fiancé Cas, while Ivy's boyfriend Max increasingly displays coercively controlling behaviour that he attempts to pass off as reasonable and caring.
Metaphors and surrealism
The hauntings in Tender could be a manifestation of male terror inflicted on women, who pay the price with deteriorating mental health. But the metaphors are too abundant—eating flesh, cutting it—and while the surrealism is exciting, it does not quite add up. Blood on stage suggests violence, and viewers may suspect one character is locked in some kind of afterlife, though this contradicts the logic of the central romance. The strange phenomena in Ash's flat ultimately amount to nothing; the wallpaper is stripped with no reveal beyond. Does it stand for mental collapse? Coming out? The flaw is confusion in potentially clashing meanings. The violence in Ash's past is also strangely under-explained, though Cas's stalking of her feels real.
Powerful elements despite loose ends
Yet there are elements so powerful that the loose ends do not frustrate as much as they might. Directed by Emily Aboud, the movement is almost like dance in moments of sexual passion, and there is lovely lyricism in the characters' dual narration. Sometimes tender, the play is as slippery and visceral as raw meat. At 90 minutes, it is a meal not quite filling enough, but every morsel is delicious. Tender runs at the Bush theatre, London, until 1 August.
