No wonder Brown Boys Swim won so many awards at Edinburgh Fringe, because the new play by young, local playwright Karim Khan hits you like a freight train.
Refreshing, moving and real, it absolutely captures the agony, ecstasy and monotony of growing up.
Throw in a coming-of-age sorry as a young Asian man, and a minority, in one of Oxford’s more deprived estates, and therein lies a new perception.
The North Wall should be applauded for bringing such a refreshing, valid and vital piece of writing to new audiences
Brown Boys Swim is based around best friends Anish Roy as the more thoughtful Mohsen and Varun Raj as the joker Kash, who’ve been invited to a party by a popular girl at school on the premise that they can swim. They can’t and so set about learning.
And there, amidst the splashing and chlorine, the cold showers, the public changing rooms and bodily observations, their daily reality is laid bare, at times funny, at others both uncomfortable and mortifying.
I took my 22 year-old son, who’s not a big theatre fan, and he found Brown Boys Swim instantly relatable, humorous, thought-provoking and moving, and it produced some really important and interesting conversations afterwards around age, race, privilege, temptation, crime and opportunity, which touch so many young men’s lives.
Karim Khan‘s observational language is spot on – the doubts and fears, the banter, the insecurities and bravado, the fight to be seen and heard, the school battles, the pecking order, the aspirations, the harsh realities, the fearless hope of the young. READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH KARIM HERE
“Brown Boys Swim is not only enlightening, but it’s an important piece of writing and a tool which can be used to change perceptions, and help craft a new, more accepting, future”
But if Brown Boys Swim is about anything, it’s a catalyst for change, acceptance and kindness, and judging by the standing ovation and the tears of the refreshingly diverse audience, it’s already working.
The North Wall, and producer John Hoggarth, should be applauded for bringing such a refreshing, valid and vital new play to new audiences.
I hope it continues to do so because Brown Boys Swim is not only enlightening but it’s an important piece of writing and a tool which can be used to change perceptions, and help craft a new, more accepting, future.
A sparkling, contemporary and seismic piece of theatre.
Brown Boys Swim is at North Wall from September 21 – 23 BOOK HERE and then on tour until the end of October at COVENTRY Belgrade Theatre, LONDON Soho Theatre, SCARBOROUGH Stephen Joseph Theatre, NEWBURY Corn Exchange, MANCHESTER Contact and BIRMINGHAM Rep. Book here BOOK HERE
Katherine MacAlister
