The P Word

by Waleed Akhtar

Zafar flees homophobic persecution in Pakistan to seek asylum in the UK. Londoner Bilal (or Billy as he prefers to be known) is ground down by years of Grindr and the complexity of being a brown gay man.

In Soho, at 2 a.m., parallel worlds collide – and Zafar and Billy's lives are about to change forever.

The P Word is Waleed Akhtar's sharp-witted and devastating play charting the parallel lives of two gay Pakistani men as they negotiate everything from casual hook-ups to the UK's hostile environment.

A story of who wins in the luck of life's draw.

Genres: Plays, Queer

72 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2022

Reviews

[hawk]

I liked this intense short play. it has a cast of two, which I think likely contributes to its intensity and intimacy - while there are many other people in the story, they're all referred to rather than appear (in the playscript, and I assume in the stage production).

the play was performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2022.
and reading some of the info on the opening pages, it was nice, and interesting, to see that the play was created in conversation/collaboration with Micro Rainbow (a UK organisation/charity that supports LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees).


🎭 🇵🇰 👨🏽‍❤‍👨🏽 🏳‍🌈 🎭


it's not an usual story, far too common in fact - exploring some of the issues LGBTQI people face in countries where they are at risk of being detained/tortured and/or killed because of the social and/or legal positions and pressures in relation to their sexuality and relationships. but it wasn't just that story. alongside was the story of a young British Pakistani gay man too, navigating a life wrought with exoticism, bullying, barriers at work (as much/more because of racialised prejudice than sexuality). and how the two young men come to enjoy sharing some of both their shared heritage and their different experiences... and more besides 🙂

it's funny in alot of places (how they meet is even funnier than the blurb suggests 😉😆), and it's harrowing in others 😢
the characters stand out really clearly - in differentiation from each other, and equally differentiated from their roles/positions in the play, and exist as warm and complex human beings.
this is taken a step further at the close, where the actors leave their roles and take over, questioning in conversation the happy ending, and how unrealistic that maybe is... but also that the two characters deserve it/one... 💔❤

really nicely done 🙂😁

at times and in places it feels very slightly simplistic, but even then it isn't - the complexity beneath is always present (I wonder if it relies in any part on the audience awareness and experience around some these issues? 🤔). and the actors also acknowledge that slight potential for cliche and too tidy a story at the end, and open the conversation up to the audience, bringing them/us in in a very personal way.

I found it a powerful and moving play. and pretty impressive in how much it covers in such little time, and solely through the dialogue between two characters 🙂


🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5


read as a paperback book, published by Nick Hern Books.

[Doug]

Mind in the gutter perhaps, but since this play deals with gay Muslims, I originally thought the title referred to penises! Turns out it stands for Paki, the common slur for Pakistanis. It won an Olivier Award for Affiliate Theatre, and was actor Akhtar's debut play, in which he also costarred. I didn't fare well with Act One which is 98% intermixed direct address monologues by the two characters, giving backstories in an expository info dump, and I always detest that. They finally meet at the end of the act, and Act Two is a more conventional play with the two interacting, and that's when it really takes off, with a dynamic, if perhaps a tad preachy ending.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...

[Dylan Bell]

I kept seeing this in the plays section in Waterstones and kept putting it off because I maybe thought the P word too weighty a subject for me to be bothered reading about at the moment or something??? I dunno

Anyway, I eventually picked it up and I’m so glad I did!

You can get this read in under and hour and I just think for something that evokes such varying and strong emotions inside you, creating two completely unique characters with their own unique arcs, and leaving you with a slightly better awareness on homophobia, Islamophobia, and seeking asylum in such a short space of time… is a great feat from Waleed Akhtar.

Definitely worth a pickup!

[Nia Roberts]

Powerful!

[Aaron Thomas]

This is good. And it works quite well. I think it's a bit on the nose at times, and the ending doesn't totally pay off the way the playwright intends, but this is a crowd pleaser, and it does what it wants to do, which is teach the audience about gay British asylum seekers.

I saw this with a mostly gay and lesbian audience at the Bush Theatre, and it played like gangbusters, even though the production made a few strange choices (recorded voices for the characters in Zafar's story but not Bilal's—weird).

[Joel Wall]

a beautiful and devastating story of love, identity, and belonging.

[jett]

studied an extract of this in gay class and had to read. incredible. a very important read.

[Leslie]

This is just so good! I hope this gets a revival.

[Charlie Herndon]

Respect the format of a memory play, respect the story it was telling, just found it to be a bit blunt and on the nose.