REVIEW | Brown Boys Swim
★ ★ ★ ★
Reviewer - Katie
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
Full of heart, Brown Boys Swim navigates poignant themes of social discrimination and intolerance through the lens of best friends Mohsen and Kash. In a coming-of-age story, the boys win themselves an invite to the social event of the season; Jess’ pool party. The only problem is, like many South Asian teenagers, they can’t swim.
The characters fall between 2 societal halves, pulled in one direction by their Muslim roots, yet yearning for acceptance in a critical, white society in middle class Oxford.
This show certainly developed over its 75 minutes, unfolding through teenage jokes and boyish banter. Its cheekiness initially provided an ease to relax into, but soon gave way to heart wrenching storylines.
The performance was incredibly sensitive, and while the plot was simple in itself, it was subtly peppered with authentic and somewhat brutal commentary on the harshness of the real world.
We see the pair caught up with police while shopping for swimming trunks, lured into trying alcohol, and pigeonholed as drug dealers by the kids at school. It was fascinating to examine the contrasting themes of fear and fight which ran throughout the piece, balanced beautifully between Kashif Ghole's (Kash) bitter anger and Ibraheem Hussain's (Mohsen) reluctance to speak out.
Its stripped back staging (by James Button) of classic swimming pool tiles provided space for a rawness in character portrayal that we could easily relate to as an audience. I would say some of the scene changes were a little jarring with the choice of onstage costume changes and music blasting, which made it feel disjointed at times and took us out of the raw naturalism. Ghole and Hussain were, however, experts at re-energising the story, performing with a passion and chemistry beyond their years and creating a real brotherhood with the characters. I am looking forward to seeing where these 2 actors' careers take them.
This is an important and incredibly relevant piece of script by Karim Khan, giving Director John Hoggarth a rich, textured framework to play with. Nevertheless, it did feel there was space for some moments to be dug into a little deeper, particularly the conversation about self love, which got cut off too soon to offer much emotional depth.
The work was challenging, yet resonated with the whole audience of mixed ethnicities, race and religion, and it is no surprise as to why it sold out so many of its fringe shows. A catalyst for change, creating space for urgent, open conversation, this two-hander quite literally throws its audience in at the deep end right alongside its characters.
Brown Boys Swim is performing at venues across the UK on a limited tour.
