I Hope Your Flowers Bloom
Raymond Wilson (UK)
Raymond Wilson. Foto: Jassy Earl.
A story of ancient plants and modern relationships.
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom is a semi-autobiographical one-person performance that offers a rare and unflinching perspective on healthy masculinity, men’s self-worth and body image, and working-class access to nature.
Brimming with energetic storytelling and poetic language, Raymond Wilson combines skillful humour with genuine emotion to tell a story of ancient plants and modern relationships. He explores what it means to be a young, working-class man in an anxiety-filled, post-Covid world; where curiosity and seeking authentic connection to others, to the feminine and to the natural world are viewed with suspicion or hidden in layers of bravado or self-deception.
Oscillating between romantic obsession and botanical description, I Hope Your Flowers Bloom follows Raymond through his friendship with Flo, where he attempts to escape the greyness of a Glasgow housing scheme into the natural world, inspired by her modern nomadic lifestyle. But when Flo leaves, so does Raymond’s love of the wilderness. Inside and broken-hearted, he’s forced to admit the things he has neglected in himself and with others, while he attempts to reconnect to the outdoors.
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom is created, written and performed by Raymond Wilson, a working-class, LGBTQ+-identifying creative and environmental-educator from Clydebank. An award-nominated, multi-disciplinary artist with experience in acting, writing, and music, his work explores the intersections between the natural world, spirituality, and the Scottish working-class.
Writer & Performer // Raymond Wilson
Producer // Emma Collins of All The Figs
Director // Fiona Mackinnon
Set Design // James Johnson of GetMADE design
Lighting Design // Maria Macdonald
Filmography // Seth Hardwick
Graphic Design // Laura Whitehouse
Raymond Wilson. Foto: Richard Walker.
“A beautifully relatable story about love and self-love. One of
the most uplifting post-pandemic stories I’ve seen so far”
“A poignant, captivating show that strikes a beautiful balance between poetry, ecology, love, loneliness and so much more”
