Christine Claire Bush (born 3 July 1986) is a British

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

Overview

Bush was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. She studied at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

and currently resides in London. She is best known for her 2007 work '' TONY! The Blair Musical'', which enjoyed sell-out runs and critical acclaim at the York Theatre Royal and Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to the Pleasance Islington as winner of the inaugural

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

NSDF Award for a successful off West-End run. Its sequel, ''Tony of Arabia'', debuted at the Pleasance Dome,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in 2008, running in rep with the original show. In 2012 Bush made her full-length debut as a writer/performer with ''The Loves I Haven't Known'', a musical comedy performed with regular composing partner Ian McCluskey. In 2012-13 Bush completed a writer's attachment at the National Theatre Studio, and was the 2013 Pearson Playwright-in-Residence for

Sheffield Theatres Sheffield Theatres is a theatre complex in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It comprises four theatres: the Crucible, the Lyceum, the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, and (as of January 2025) the Montgomery Theatre. These theatres make up ...

, where she wrote ''The Sheffield Mysteries'', a contemporary take on the medieval Mystery Plays, directed by Daniel Evans. Bush has been an Artist in Residence for the Oxford Playhouse and

, and a member of the Orange Tree Theatre Writers' Collective. She has won both the Perfect Pitch Award and Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award for Musical Theatre. She has stated on numerous occasions that her favourite colour is Periwinkle. More recently, she was among the writers to receive first-look deals with ViacomCBS International Studios to start a program to amplify diverse voices. On 18 July 2024, Bush was made an honorary Doctor of Letters at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

. Later that month, on 29 July 2024, she received a second honorary degree from the University of York.

Selected stage works

* '' TONY! The Blair Musical'' (2007) York Theatre Royal, Pleasance * ''Tony of Arabia'' (2008) Theatre Royal, Wakefield, Oxford North Wall, Pleasance * ''WOLF'' (2009) The Theatre,

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswolds in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 201 ...

and

Latitude Festival Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. The first edition of the festival took place in 2006 and has continued annually (apart from 2020 when it was cancel ...

* ''The Loves I Haven't Known'' (2012)

C Venues C, or c, is the third Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#L ...

, Edinburgh * ''20 Tiny Plays about Sheffield'' (2013) Crucible Theatre Studio * ''The Sheffield Mysteries'' (2014) Crucible Theatre * ''Poking the Bear'' (2014) Theatre503 * ''Be, Spoke'' (2014)

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

/ Welcome to Yorkshire, Tour de Yorkshire * ''Larksong'' (2015) New Vic Theatre * ''A Declaration From the People'' (2015)

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

* ''A Dream'' (2016) Crucible Theatre * ''What We Wished For'' (2017) Crucible Theatre * ''Steel'' (2018)

* ''The Assassination of Katie Hopkins'' (2018)

Theatr Clwyd Theatr Clwyd () is a regional arts centre and producing theatre from Mold, Flintshire, in North East Wales. It opened as Theatr Clwyd in 1976, but was known between 1998 and 2015 as Clwyd Theatr Cymru, before reverting to its original name. His ...

* ''Pericles'' (2018) National Theatre * ''The Changing Room'' (2018) National Theatre Connections * ''The Last Noël'' (2018) The Old Fire Station * '' Standing At The Sky's Edge'' (2019)

* ''Faustus: That Damned Woman'' (2019) Lyric Hammersmith * ''Kein Weltuntergang'' (2021) Schaubühne, Berlin * ''Rock/ Paper/ Scissors'' (2022)

* ''A Dolls House'' (adaptation) (2024)

Political views

Despite lampooning him on stage, Bush described

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

as "a decent man who made some bad decisions", and stated that she had "come to ridicule beautiful Blair not vilify him". Some have argued that Bush is not critical enough of New Labour. Writing in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

, Dominic Cavendish claimed that "the country is angrier than ony, The Blair Musicalallows". Contrarily, Paul Lowman of

The Press (York) ''The Press'' is a newspaper covering North and East Yorkshire, England It is published daily in the City of York by Newsquest Media Group Ltd, a subsidiary of Gannett Company Inc. History The ''Yorkshire Evening Press'' was established in 1 ...

has praised Bush's even-handedness, stating that her greatest strength is her ability to "camouflage complex issues in a vastly entertaining, glossy, media friendly package". Bush has stated that she is proud of her British heritage, and is a supporter of immigration to the country. On a 2009 episode of '' Come Dine with Me'' she stated that "what makes erreally proud of Britain sthe number of people who want to be here". Bush champions the

Koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

and is a frequent donor to the Australian Koala Foundation.

Trivia

In November 2009, Bush appeared on an episode of the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

reality television programme '' Come Dine with Me''. Bush placed joint first and received £500 of the £1000 prize, which according to her equated to a "year's wages in the theatre".

References

External links

Agency website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bush, Chris 1986 births Living people Writers from Sheffield Alumni of the University of York 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights