This autumn, screen stars Golda Rosheuvel (Bridgerton) and Letitia Wright (Black Panther) will make their first stage appearances in years. But they won’t be appearing in a glitzy West End star vehicle or a prestigious National Theatre production. Instead, they’re heading to west London for new drama Not Your Superwoman at the 220-seat Bush Theatre, a venue with a wildly outsized influence on the city’s theatre culture.
“They wanted to do something that would challenge them,” playwright Emma Dennis-Edwards tells Broadsheet. Her latest production is an exploration of mother-daughter relationships and mental health, with emotionally intense roles. But both felt “they’d be in safe hands”.
A big part of that confidence is down to Lynette Linton, the artistic director who steered the Bush for six years until her departure this spring. During her tenure, she programmed four Olivier Award-winning plays – including Richard Gadd’s hit Baby Reindeer, which was later commissioned by Netflix – and landed two West End transfers, turning the Bush into a crucial destination for audiences seeking hope in theatre’s future. Now, she returns to direct Not Your Superwoman as a final farewell to the venue, drawing on her starry connections in a way she didn’t during a reign that focused on spotlighting emerging talent. And this collaboration with Dennis-Edwards has been a long time coming. The pair first met years before either of them were theatre names to be reckoned with.
“We met on a Stonecrabs [Theatre] directing course and bonded over both having day jobs in John Lewis, so it’s been amazing to watch her thrive,” says Dennis-Edwards. “We’ve wanted to do something together for years and years, so it’s funny it finally happened just after she’s left the Bush.”
Not Your Superwoman emerged from the pair’s conversations about Black women and mental health. “We were spending a lot of time thinking about generational curses, and the way trauma can pattern through generations.”
Set in the aftermath of the death of a family matriarch, the play examines the knock-on effects of losing a family member who binds the others together. The title is a nod to the expectations placed on migrant mothers. “In the Caribbean community, women often have this sense of having to do everything, of having to be all things to all people,” Dennis-Edwards says. “Especially for the Windrush generation, who had to survive horrific racism, put food on the table and arm their children for battle in a hostile society while living far away from home. But becoming a mum made me reassess a lot, and I found myself wanting to reclaim the softness of motherhood, because that’s not necessarily how I was raised.”
Dennis-Edwards both wrote and starred in her award-winning breakout play, 2018’s Funeral Flowers, a powerful story of a 17-year-old in care, fighting for a better life for herself. This time, she’s not appearing onstage. But, even behind the scenes, it’s daunting. “When you write a play you really are putting your heart on the outside. Even if it’s not about you, it reveals so much about you, which is scary but I love it.”
Fortunately, the Bush Theatre is a welcoming place for new stories. “It’s such a good vibe,” Dennis-Edwards says of the down-to-earth venue, which sells Jamaican patties behind the bar and hosts DJ sets after shows. And that warmth extends to the team behind Not Your Superwoman, too. “We feel like a creative family who really know each other, and really get each other.”
Not Your Superwoman runs from September 8 until November 1 at Bush Theatre.