The P Word: Powerful new play casts a damning light on UK's treatment of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers

Stirring new drama The P Word explores the bitter reality faced by LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, and the complexities of being a gay Pakistani man in Britain.

Waleed Akhtar's stripped-back play is one of two halves. For the first act, two characters share their stories in monologue, each taking up one-half of the sparse, in-the-round staging.

Billy (played by Akhtar), known as Bilal to his family, is a gay Pakistani-Londoner. He was bullied at school for being a "fat brown poof", is just-about tolerated by his mother, who dream of him having a "proper family", and as a result has developed an internalised racism, spending his days on Grindr cruising white men, and ridiculing other Pakistanis.

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Waleed Akhtar wrote and stars in The P Word. (Craig Fuller)[/caption]

Zafar, played by Esh Alladi, is an asylum seeker. He fled Pakistan after his father tried to kill him, and is surviving – barely – in temporary accommodation while he awaits an appeal into his case. The Home Office has found his story not credible, and though utterly defeated, he has to continue fighting – or else, face certain death.

Too often, asylum seekers are reduced to headlines, statistics. Here, we're reminded that a person seeking asylum is just a person like you or I. We're shown the crushing reality of being in the system: the cruelness of the UK Home Office , the appalling conditions it forces upon people, the lingering fears that follow those who've been persecuted for being who they are. On the flip-side, Billy's story shows how being a queer person of colour in the UK can mean a life of isolation, filled with rejection, self-hatred, and a deep need to belong.

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(Craig Fuller)[/caption]

When the two men's stories collide, we see a gorgeous exploration of how community makes us better people, helps us to deal with our trauma and find hope for the future. Akhtar and Alladi's chemistry is magnetic – Billy is full of heart, even when he's putting on a braggadocios facade, and Zafar speaks every word with his heart on his sleeve. Just when you think the script is veering into too neat of a happy ending, it pulls back to powerful, devastating effect. The message is spelled out clearly, just in case it wasn't already so: the Home Office is condemning LGBTQ+ people to death by refusing them asylum, and it cannot be allowed to continue.

The P Word is on at the Bush Theatre, London, until 22 October.