The Bush Theatre has announced that due to popular demand their hit production of The P Word has been extended to Saturday 29th October. Also today a video interview with author and actor Waleed Akhtar talking about the play, with cultural producer Ryan Lanji, has been released.
Audiences and critics have acclaimed the play which tells the story of Zafar, played by Esh Alladi, who flees homophobic persecution in Pakistan to seek asylum in the UK. Londoner Bilal, or Billy as he prefers to be known, played by the author Waleed Akhtar, is ground down by years of Grindr and the complexity of being a brown gay man. Their worlds are about to change forever.
Moving through casual hook-ups to the UK’s hostile environment, Waleed Akhtar’s sharp-witted and devastating new play charts the parallel lives of two gay Pakistani men. This story of who wins in the luck of the life’s draw is a new Bush Theatre commission.
Deirdre O’Halloran, Literary Manager of the Bush Theatre said: “The P Word is the story of an unlikely friendship in a time where it feels like we’re all increasingly divided, there is something quietly revolutionary about the people who manage to reach across barricades and find ways of communicating. The play started out as a seed commission at the Bush, with Waleed writing a full first draft in just a week and the team was so excited and inspired by its activism, truthfulness, and hopefulness. It’s a queer story that could not be more relevant to Britain today.”
The Bush worked with Micro Rainbow to realise the production. Micro Rainbow opened the first safe house in the United Kingdom dedicated solely to LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees – https://microrainbow.org/
Photos by Craig Fuller
The P Word runs at the Bush Theatre to 29th October at 7 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, London W12 8LJ. Tickets priced from £20 (concessions available) can be booked at bushtheatre.co.uk or at the box office on 020 8743 5050.
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