The P Word | Bush Theatre
© Craig Fuller When I wrote my MA dissertation, I was interested in exploring how theatre and social abjection are interconnected. My first chapter ended up being about the performativity of asylum and Zodwa Nyoni's play Nine Lives , in which the protagonist Ishmael is forced to escape his home in Zimbabwe because his homosexuality is endangering his life. I found myself rethinking a lot about what I learned from that process the other night when watching The P Word at Bush Theatre. The show recounts the story of two gay Pakistani men; Bilal (Waleed Akhtar) leads a busy but lonely life between his job in fashion, the gym, and Grindr hook-ups. Zafar (Esh Alladi) is an asylum seeker who fled from his village after his father murdered his partner; he now finds himself in the hostile Hounslow, waiting for his claim to be processed. In order not to be sent back to his death, Zafar has to, somehow, prove his homosexuality. The bureaucratic performance he is expected to provide is dehum...