Like lots of South Asian teenagers, Kash and Mohsen can’t swim. But with the biggest social event of their lives, Jess’s pool party, round the corner, there is only one thing to do – learn. At the poolside of their local leisure centre, the best friends bicker, banter and try their best to blend in. But Karim Khan’s play is more astute than your standard coming-of-age story. Based on real-life cases of drownings, it subtly explores the reasons why so many young Asians never learn to swim.
Set in Oxford, at a time when Islamophobia is rife, it is a fight for the Muslim boys to stay afloat. The fear from others of seeing brown bodies stings the air of the swimming pool changing rooms. At school, they’re labelled drug dealers. A trip to the shops to buy swimming trunks turns sour with the police watching their every turn. They might be split on whether to fight or ignore it, but the everyday racism they’re wading through is chronic.
