The Real Ones reunites the team behind the Olivier Award-winning sensation, The P Word. Writer Waleed Akhtar talked to QX about his latest play ahead of its premiere at The Bush Theatre (which has already had an extended run announced).
Your last play at the Bush Theatre, The P Word, received critical acclaim and an Olivier Award. For those who might not be familiar with The P Word, it is the story of two gay Pakistani men, one seeking asylum from homophobic abuse in Pakistan while the other has been ground down by years of Grindr and the complexity of being a brown gay man in England. Looking back at that success, besides the accolades, what gave you the greatest sense of achievement?
There have been so many highs with The P Word. On a personal level, it’s seeing it in print in bookshops, my family coming to watch it, or the fact that people still come up to me to this day and say how affected they were by the show.
But the greatest sense of achievement actually came the day before we had press night. Micro Rainbow, the amazing charity that partnered with us on the production, brought a group of LGBTQ+ people who had been through the asylum process to come watch. They sent the most beautiful email after, about how they felt seen and how moved they were that somebody was highlighting their story. That was my press night.
Your latest play to come to The Bush is The Real Ones. It’s the story of Neelam and Zaid. He’s gay, and she is his best girlfriend. You say that you “kind of write plays for the gays and the girls.” Can you expand on that, please?
It was said as a joke, but I’ll stick by it! It’s my way of saying I’m happy to tell stories from perspectives that we don’t hear enough from. And my plays will always be challenging, funny and a bit fierce. In the case of The Real Ones, I really wanted to highlight platonic love in a way that I’ve not seen before. The boys have come and gone, but the greatest relationships in my life will be my mates, chosen family, and I wanted to celebrate that and look at the difficulties.
Does The Real Ones resonate with your personal life?
It was only after I’d written it, that I realised that because the central character of Zaid is queer, British and Pakistani, and trying to make it as a writer – everyone’s going to think he’s me. But it’s not autobiographical, I promise. I’ve defo drawn on bits of my life like I do for all of my plays, but obviously the scene where Neelam and Zaid are high off their faces is completely made up. I’ve never done anything like that.
But in terms of themes, there’s a lot about how the nature of friendships evolve and change. I’ve had that a lot recently with loads of my friends having kids.
Tell us something about the audience you want to attract and what you hope they will take away with them from The Real Ones?
A paying audience? Hahaha. Seriously though, I’d love for the Queer and Asian community that came and supported The P Word to come to this too. It was such a beautiful thing to witness those people in the theatre and I want to continue engaging with them. The show at its heart is a universal story of friendship and I’d love for audiences to leave thinking about how valuable their friends are and maybe be inspired to let them know that. We have a fantastic cast in It’s A Sin’sNathaniel Curtis, Nnabiko Ejimofor from the stage hit For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, Black Mirror’s Mariam Haque, and Anthony Howell from Luther. Plus it’s been brilliant to be reunited with The P Word’s director Anthony Simpson-Pike.
Finally, what other projects do you have in the pipeline? Will we hear more from you as a writer, or will we see more of you as an actor?
You will see me pop up in the new HBO comedy The Franchise, but writing has taken over a bit. I have play, Mrs Bibi, coming to Audible in 2025, I’ve written an episode of The Road Trip, an adaptation of the Beth O’Leary novel (who also wrote The Flatshare) and currently working on adapting The P Word for screen. I genuinely feel so humbled to have so many opportunities at the moment to be creative.
The Real Ones premieres from 6 September – 19 October 2024 at Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, London W12 8LJ, United Kingdom.
Waleed Akhtar: Feature Photo Credit (c): Helen Murray www.helenmurrayphotos.com
