Playwright Chris Bush says being trans in the public eye ‘terrifying’ right now

Playwright and director Chris Bush has said that being a trans person in public is “f***ing terrifying” right now.

The critically-acclaimed theatre veteran, 38, said that being a public-facing trans person in the UK was scary right now, namely because of the intense scrutiny the community is under right now.

Speaking to The Observer about her latest project, Otherland – a story about a young couple who break-up after one half of the relationship, Harry, wants to come out as a trans woman, Bush explained why it had taken her so long to address trans issues in her work despite coming out herself aged 30.

Noting that she didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a trans writer, she added: “Then also, because it’s fucking terrifying, actually.

“Even in London, even in the arts, why would I invite that into my professional or public life?” she said.

“You know, I’m a playwright: no one gives a s**t about playwrights, ultimately. But being able to see that any trans woman or any trans person with any public profile only has to say the most innocuous thing to immediately get virtual and real-world hatred.

“Why would you sign up for that yourself?”

Bush said she wanted the piece to be “absolutely transformative,” saying she hopes it can be “what I’m building it up to be in my head.”

“It is absolutely, fundamentally not an autobiography,” the director, who came out as trans at 30, said. “It is not a true story of me. However, yes, I was in a long-term relationship for the best part of a decade, which did end.

“Actually, there is quite a lot of me in elements of Harry, a trans character. There is, I’d say, almost nothing, or as little possible, of my ex in the character Jo.”

Bush said she felt it was a “responsible” choice to distance her own experiences from the project, saying: “I can write about my own experiences and trauma and, actually, I’m not interested in getting into anybody else’s.”

The playwright added to Observer journalist, Tim Lewis, that she didn’t want Otherland to be an explicitly angry piece, saying that she didn’t want it to become a play where “you get told off for 90 minutes.”

“For reasons that I thoroughly understand and quite often feel myself, there is a lot of anger and a lot of rage and a lot of blame in work made by trans artists,” she said. “But this show is really a plea for understanding for womanhood of all different types and shapes and sizes and forms.”

Nevertheless, she wants the play to be a production that counts, saying: “There might not be another play written by a trans woman this year, this deca,e this whatever, of this prestige and at a venue like the Almeida … so even if you don’t sign up for it, you are put in a position of representing more than just yourself.”

Otherland runs at the Almeida Theatre until 15 March 2025.