Bush Studio's Heather is An Emotional Rollercoaster

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Penny Flood is gripped by a brilliant play about writers and words

There are no answers, just more questions, and it's gripping right to the end.

It’s very clever, with twists and turns.  At times it's shocking, but not without humour. An emotional roller coaster ride that packs an awful lot into 55 minutes.

Things start calmly enough with a series of emails between writer Heather (Charlotte Mella) and publisher Henry (Ashley Gerlach).

Heather has sent him her first book Greta and the Pen of the Necromancer. Henry loves it, it's a huge success making them lots of money. The two of them read out their emails which are liberally dotted with smiling winking emojis.

It’s very funny at the start, but Heather refuses to meet Henry and things start to get tense, there's a mystery here. At first Heather pleads a pregnancy, then she says she's got cancer, then the plot twists, things get really dark until finally they meet and the shocks keep on coming.

Ashley and Charlotte give great performances, especially at the end when they become Scrorax and Greta acting out a chapter of the book; leaping on and off tables brandishing LED batons amid screams and bolts of lightning as Greta faces her enemy with her only weapon,  the pen. However, exciting as it was, that bit didn't quite work for me, it was a tad too long. But that’s the only thing I can find wrong with it so it's a bit of a niggle.

It's in the Bush's little studio and seats are selling fast so if you want to see it, you'll need to get your skates on.

Heather, written by Thomas Eccleshare continues at the Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, until 18 November, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday, a captioned performance on 8 November at 7.45pm and an audio described performance on 18 November at 2.45pm.

Find out more and book tickets here or call the box office on 020 8743 5050.

November 7, 2017