The world premiere of AJ Yi’s A Playlist for the Revolution, a tender and surprising story of young love fighting to survive, opens at the Bush Theatre on 23 June (press night 29 June). This explosive and deeply moving play is a new Bush commission, written by AJ Yi, directed by Emily Ling Williams and with a cast including Brandon Grace, Mei Mei Macleod, and Zak Shukor.
A wedding in Hong Kong, 2019. Two worlds collide. A spark ignites.
Jonathan is a buttoned-up classical pianist, and he’s pretty sure his life will look just like his father’s: a good job, a family, firmly settled in Hong Kong.
Chloe is about to start university in England, and she’s ready to be the Asian Elle Woods. Empowered by the music of BTS, M.I.A and Beyonce (of course), she has big plans to make her mark.
Through months of sharing messages, music reccs, and late-night confessions, the two get swept up in the promise of how someone unexpected can change your world. What they don’t realise is that the world around them is about to change forever.
A rom-com right up until it can’t be, A Playlist for the Revolution is set against the backdrop of the largest demonstrations in Hong Kong’s history.
AJ Yi (formerly known as Alissa Anne Jeun Yi) is a mixed-race Chinese writer and performer based in London. In 2018, AJ developed their debut play Love Songs through the Soho Theatre Writer’s Lab. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe and transferred to Soho Theatre. It received Guardian Pick of the Fringe, and was nominated for two comedy awards and the Tony Craze Award. In 2021 their short play Avocado Fried Rice was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and they were commissioned to write multiple pieces of work for English Touring Theatre during lockdown. AJ was part of the BBC Writersroom Drama Room development scheme in 2020 and progressed onto the BBC TV Drama Writer’s Programme in 2021. They have original projects in development and have worked on multiple writer’s rooms including the adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s book Everything I Know About Love (BBC One / Working Title), and The Fuck-It Bucket (Netflix / Leftbank Pictures).
Director Emily Ling Williams was previously Trainee Director at Paines Plough, a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre and Jerwood Assistant Director at the Young Vic. She is currently an Origins Artist at Headlong. She has previously directed Wasted (Lyric Hammersmith); The Full Works, The Key Workers Cycle (Almeida); text me when you’re home, 5 Plays (Young Vic); Lucky Cigarette (New Earth); Swallow; 16 (Lemon House Theatre); GYSB; Tuesday at the Library; A Perpetual State of Happiness; Good Trouble (Moongate); Appropriate; The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window (RWCMD); Miss Julie (LAMDA); Preach (Rose Bruford); Turbines (Paines Plough/ RWCMD/ Gate Theatre). She was Assistant Director on The House of Shades (Almeida); Blood Wedding (Young Vic); The Meeting; The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre); Black Mountain; Out Of Love; How To Be A Kid (Paines Plough/ Theatr Clwyd/ Orange Tree); The Island Nation (Arcola).
Brandon Grace plays Jonathan. His theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre); Kick (Lyric Hammersmith); Abandon (Lyric Ensemble); Rush (Baron’s Court Theatre) and Stacked (Almeida Young Company). On television, Brandon has appeared in My Lady Jane (Amazon) and Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix).
Mei Mei Macleod plays Chloe. A recent graduate of Drama Centre London, her previous theatre appearances include Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe); How To Save a Rock (Pigfoot Theatre/ English Touring Theatre) and Disc Jockey (Velvet Smoke Productions/ Bread and Roses Theatre). Her television appearances include Grantchester (ITV).
Zak Shukor plays Mr Chu. Zak recently finished filming Jack Ryan for Paramount/Amazon Prime. His other television credits include the Netflix series Warriors, Save Me Too, winner of the Best Drama BAFTA. Netflix series Sex Education and Stan Lee’s Lucky Man on Sky 1. His film credits include Mr Holmes, Survivor with James McTeigue and Milla Jovovich and Marvel’s Dr Strange.
