DIVA caught up with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Nadi Kemp-Sayfi ahead of this new production at the Bush Theatre
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY BUSH THEATRE
Ivy has everything: a flat, a boyfriend, a path in life that knows exactly where it’s going. But there’s something she tries to avoid thinking about… the thing she left in her childhood bedroom. Ash should be having the time of her life. But there’s something off about her new flat. The wallpaper… pulses. When these two women stumble across each other in a chance encounter, a thrilling tale soon transpires that’s ready to subvert everything you thought you knew about queer love stories.
Eleanor Tindall’s play Tender is returning to the Bush Theatre this July for a new production after the 2024 sold-out Studio hit. Directed by Emily Aboud, Tender stars Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (Ash) and Nadi Kemp-Sayfi (Ivy) in this gripping thriller-come-romance. Ahead of this exciting run, DIVA caught up with Francesca and Nadi as they get ready to bring this captivating story back to the main stage.
Historically, queer audiences have gotten used to bracing themselves for the LGBTQIA+ characters in a story to face a tragic or untimely end. Nadi and Francesca quickly assure that it isn’t the case with Tender. “The play invites you to interrogate where the horror really lies,” Nadi explains. “Especially in the media where people of colour and queer people tend to be killed off, [we’re saying] that we’re allowed to do disturbing, melancholic plays too. We get to do thrillers, but no one dies. We’re asking, ‘What if the horror isn’t in our identity?’ Because that’s not how it feels to be queer – it’s not horrifying.”
At its core, Tender is a play about the deeply human aspects of our lives. How did Francesca and Nadi connect with these characters? “We find these women at a crossroads in their lives,” Francesca says. “They’re coming to terms with who they are, what they care about and what they want for themselves. They go about understanding those things in very chaotic and destructive but also beautiful ways.”
Nadi adds: “The script demands you see poetry in the everyday mundanity and domestic trials of being a queer woman. It’s one of the most surreal but easily accessible scripts I’ve ever read. It dives you straight into the life force of being a human being.”
A lot has changed for the queer community since the show’s debut in 2024. Around the world, LGBTQIA+ rights seem to be in precarious positions, with the rise of the far-right increasingly putting queer lives at risk. For both Francesca and Nadi, Tender is a beacon of hope.
“There was a hot second where it was acceptable, even dare I say fashionable, to include us,” Nadi tells me. “Now there’s a reeling back of support for our communities, and I find it really harrowing because so many of us have stepped into the light hoping for safety in our society. So just telling a story where two women fall in love, and it’s a rom-com thriller, but the horror element isn’t the queerness whatsoever, is amazing.”
“So much of popular culture and how we understand ourselves as a society come from queer communities,” Francesca continues. “It’s so important to honour that queer people have always been here and always been at the front line of progress.”
Interesting, nuanced representation of queerness has never been so needed. The cast of Tender is hoping that, despite the bleak nature of queer rights globally, this play can offer a space for entertainment and conversation.
For Nadi, who starred in the 2024 production, Tender is a space for community. “I’ve never looked through the slit in the curtain and seen so many lesbians in the audience,” Nadi says. “The world sometimes really wants to tell us that there are so few of us. There’s something really special about lesbians loving one another en masse. There’s a massive invitation in this piece for us all to come out and sit together.”
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