Lynette Linton to direct Bridgerton star in final Bush Theatre season

Lynette Linton has announced her final Bush Theatre season, with the venue leader to direct Bridgerton star Golda Rosheuvel in a world premiere production.

Linton’s final production at the venue will be maternal drama Superwoman Schema, written by Emma Dennis-Edwards and featuring leads Rosheuvel and Letitia Wright.

The play forms part of a season which will also see incoming Bush artistic director Taio Lawson direct, and a co-commission with Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.

The programme, running up until early next year, concludes Linton’s six years of season announcements at the venue.

Linton said: "At a time when finances are being increasingly squeezed, we recognise the importance of the arts and are determined to push through with a season on new writing and community engagement."

She added: "Running the Bush Theatre for the last six years has been one of the biggest honours of my life and I am so proud of all the incredible artists who have passed through the building. [Outgoing associate artistic director] Dan [Bailey] and I wanted to disrupt the canon, and I believe we have done just that with over 50 productions from the most incredible British and Irish writers."

The season opens with Miss Myrtle’s Garden, a "life-affirming exploration into how we acknowledge the past" written by Danny James King and directed by Lawson. The play, running from May 31 to July 12, receives its world premiere in the Bush’s main space, the Holloway Theatre.

Superwoman Schema is on at the venue between September 6 and October 25, with a press night held on September 12, and follows the relationship between mother Joyce and her daughter, Erica, in the aftermath of a family death.

Playwright Sofia Griffin’s After Sunday, meanwhile, comes to the Bush in its co-production with Belgrade Theatre from November 10 to December 20. Set in a Caribbean cooking class in a secure hospital, the production is directed by Belgrade’s creative director, Corey Campbell.

Another co-production, Sweetmeats, sees the Bush team up with Tara Theatre. The play, written by Karim Khan and directed by Natasha Kathi-Chandra, is on from February 7 to March 21, 2026, and tells the story of South Asian elders Liaquat and Hema’s "forbidden love".

Oldham Coliseum’s co-commission with the Bush, Heart Wall, plays the venue from April 4 to May 16. It is written by Bush Writer’s Group alumni Kit Withington.

Other productions, set to play the Bush Theatre studio space this season, include Horse of Jenin, presented by the Palestine Comedy Club from November 20 to December 20 this year; Farah Najib’s neighbourhood drama, Maggots, on from January 27 to February 28 next year; and Prentice Productions’ I’m Not Being Funny, on from May 7 to June 6, 2026.