The P Word is a love story with shades of When Harry Met Sally: it has the same awkward will-they won’t-they friendship, cuteness and big dose of schmaltz.
But Waleed Akhtar’s duologue is ingeniously so much more: a consciousness-raising play about homophobic persecution, racism within the gay community and Britain’s hostile asylum system. These issues do not feel fully enough explored in the play’s short duration (80 minutes) but neither are they welded on or shouted out – at least until the very final moment.
