‘It’s a radical act to garden’: different queer generations find common ground in nature drama
Gardening can be radical, whether a gardener realises it or not. In 2010, fashion designer Ron Finley turned neglected areas in his South Central neighbourhood of Los Angeles into vegetable patches. He was ordered to remove them for gardening without a permit but, with a group of activists, fought back and changed the city’s laws. Derek Jarman’s home in Kent, where he lived in his final years and grew plants in an inhospitable garden, has become a pilgrimage site. Many LGBTQ+ people consider it symbolic of successfully existing in an unwelcoming space, much as Jarman had as a queer man under a Conservative government in the 1980s.
The transformative power of nature for marginalised communities has a central theme in Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew, the debut play by nonbinary writer and performer Coral Wylie, staged this month at the Bush theatre in London. In this exploration of queerness, generational trauma, family dynamics and, less explicitly, race, gardening serves as a powerful tool for personal and collective healing. “It’s a radical act to garden – to take an outdoor space and make a home out of it,” says the 29-year-old over a video call.
The actor-writer from west London joined the Bush theatre in 2021 as part of its Young Company initiative, bringing together local storytellers aged 18 to 25. A quick scroll through Wylie’s green-filled Instagram page shows a strong affinity with the natural world, much like Pip, the character they portray in the play. Pip is a queer 19-year-old who has picked up gardening as a hobby from their father, Craig. While rummaging through the attic, Pip comes across a violet jacket previously owned by Craig’s late friend Duncan, a gay man who, like Jarman, died of Aids in the 90s.
According to Wylie: “The play came to be because my parents had a best friend, Wayne Sterling, who passed away in 1994 from complications with Aids.” Wylie was given his jacket, much like their character in the play. “I grew up being told all about him, how important he was and how much I acted like him.” In the play, Pip finds Duncan’s diary in his jacket pocket with musings about his life and gardening ventures, often with Craig. Duncan compares himself to gorse, a shrub with bright yellow flowers – “twisted branches wrung out like washing”. He admires its “persistence” even in “the bitterest cold”.
Wylie reflects on the fact that had they got to know Wayne, they might have discovered themself much sooner. However, they also acknowledge that it was through Wayne’s presence in their parents’ lives that they became who they are today. “In theatre, many people are writing about grief, and it felt important to write about it in this way – it was written for Wayne and for everything that I am because of him.”
The discoveries in the attic spark questions about Pip’s parents’ connection to queerness, how their family’s varied interest in gardening came about and the undeniable effects of grief. It’s a Sin actor Omari Douglas is playing Duncan in the production. “There is a simplicity in this kind of human drama about family, loss, grief and identity and people trying to find their place in the world,” he says.
The play teeters between 2013 and 1993, between Pip’s world and Duncan in his 30s, two people who never met and were queer at very different times but nevertheless have many similarities. For Douglas, the play shows how, when exploring one’s own identity, “you can bump up against things in the world around you,” he says. He points out that not only do you have to adjust your understanding of yourself and others during this process, but others closest to you are often also “trying to meet you where you are”, which comes with its challenges.
These difficulties are particularly apparent to Craig, who struggles to grasp the intricacies of his child’s queerness and finds discomfort in them grappling with their identity through his dead best friend’s belongings and life. This is in stark contrast to when audiences meet Craig with Duncan in the 90s, often gardening together. Their friendship is warm, light and full of mutual understanding, a dynamic Douglas finds heartwarming.
“It felt so comforting, seeing two black men from the Caribbean diaspora, one gay and one straight, interacting with each other like this, and the nuances and idiosyncrasies [of their relationship],” he says, highlighting the play’s backdrop of the natural world, upending stereotypes of black men. “To see these black men immersed in that world – eating, sleeping and breathing it – was a fascinating journey.”
Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew is at Bush theatre, London, 8 February-22 March
