The P Phrase is a love story with shades of When Harry Met Sally: it has the identical awkward will-they received’t-they friendship, cuteness and massive dose of schmaltz.
However Waleed Akhtar’s duologue is ingeniously a lot extra: a consciousness-raising play about homophobic persecution, racism throughout the homosexual group and Britain’s hostile asylum system. These points don't really feel absolutely sufficient explored within the play’s quick period (80 minutes) however neither are they welded on or shouted out – at the very least till the very closing second.
Bilal, performed by Akhtar, is a British Pakistani who has been bullied in school for being brown, large and homosexual. He has since remodeled himself right into a Grindr-addicted health club physique, altering his identify to Billy and defensively chasing hookups with solely white males.
Zafar, performed with tenderness by Esh Alladi, is a Pakistani claiming asylum within the UK; his homosexual lover was murdered and he's marked for a similar destiny if he returns to his village close to Lahore.
Directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike, they're oblivious of one another for the primary a part of the play, talking from their very own sides of Max Johns’ round dais stage, however there's an emotional gear-shift once they meet. Akhtar’s script good points power, momentum and depth from hereon in. British Pakistani identification is touched on in addition to religion and homophobia, with a stunning alternate concerning the serenity that Islamic prayer brings for each males.
The play might afford to go additional into character. It hurtles on, led by unlikely friendship, whereas Bilal’s emotional transformation comes too rapidly. However the story has an irresistible high quality that makes us consider in it and we're swept alongside.
We get the Bollywood ending that the play knowingly drives in the direction of however which it undercuts in the identical breath to make a degree about asylum. This over-emphatic second is just not wanted – we get the message by way of the story itself. But when this can be a barely scrappy drama, it bewitches with hope, romance and coronary heart.
At Bush theatre, London, till 22 October.
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