Show menu
Back to Bush Theatre

Related Articles

Collaborating on The Cord: Dr Jess Heron & Bijan Sheibani

Thu 25 Apr 2024 | Our Plays, The Bigger Picture

Dr Jess Heron, founder and CEO of National perinatal mental health charity, Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP), and acclaimed writer and director, Bijan Sheibani, collaborated on research for his new play The Cord, that follows a family struggling to navigate the postpartum period. “APP, which began as a research panel, now supports women and families…

BUSHCYLING: How we’re improving our sustainability, one stage set at a time

Thu 23 Nov 2023 | Our Plays, The Bigger Picture

When you watch a new show at the Bush, you’re seeing a brand new set every time… or are you?  Putting on a production can use a lot of resources: from energy for lights to purchasing costumes and furniture to the timber needed to build sets and scenery, so we try to reuse materials as…

“I keep coming back to sex and death – but, you know, in a fun way.” Meet Marcelo Dos Santos

Thu 02 Nov 2023 | Our People, Playwriting

With a day to go until Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen bursts onto our stage, we caught up with writer Marcelo Dos Santos to get the inside scoop on his inspirations for the play and how it feels to, as he says, “put it all out there”. “I’m inspired by…

Who is Taylor Mac?

Thu 25 May 2017 | Our Plays

Taylor Mac is one of the most dynamic and explosive voices in America right now. Seriously. You should know about this.

1. A critically acclaimed, legendary theatre artist

Until Hir (that’s the show the Bush is doing) Mac normally stars in judy’s (that’s the pronoun Mac uses) own productions. So this is the first play judy’s just the playwright for. It premiered in 2014 in the US.

“One of the most exciting theater artists of our time” Time Out NYC

They named judy the best cabaret performer in New York in 2012 and a future theatre legend.

Hir, Playwrights Horizons (NYC)

Hir, Playwrights Horizons (NYC) in 2015. Photo: Joan Marcus

2. 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama

Taylor Mac is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the marathon musical journey: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Casually also winner of a Kennedy Prize Recipient, NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and Edwin Booth Award. Plus a tonne more incredible residencies and awards for playwriting.

It’s a radical fairy realness ritual in which Mac performs 246 songs that were popular in United States from 1776-2016.  Each decade gets roughly an hour.

“Fabulousness can come in many forms, and Taylor Mac seems intent on assuming every one of them.” New York Times

3. Internationally renowned master of theatre

Mac’s work has been to New York City’s Lincoln Center and The Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, American Repertory Theater, Stockholm’s Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, London’s Soho Theatre and literally hundreds of other theatres, museums, music halls, cabarets and festivals around the globe.

Photo: Teddy Wolff

Photo: Teddy Wolff

“Mac is one of those rare souls that was born to communicate his emotions and ideas on stage. ” A Younger Theatre

4. Author of sixteen full-length plays and performance pieces

These include Hir, The Lily’s Revenge (Obie Award), The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (named One of the Best Plays of 2011 by the New York Times), The Young Ladies Of (Chicago’s Jeff Award Nomination for Best Solo), Red Tide Blooming (Ethyl Eichelberger Award), The Be(A)St Of Taylor Mac (Edinburgh Festival’s Herald Angel Award).

5. Full on fabulous costumes galore

Taylor Mac’s Hir runs 15 Jun – 22 Jul 2017.

It’s directed by Nadia Fall. Cast: Arthur Darvill, Ashley McGuire, Griffyn Gilligan and Andy Williams. Find out more and book here.

£10 Count Me In tickets, which are booked in advance and allocated to a seat on the day, are available if you book early. (You probably won’t be sat with the people you booked with but you are guaranteed a seat. These aren’t Day Tickets!) Adult tickets from £20 with concessions available.