The North Wall’s Brown Boys Swim from Karim Khan (recipient of Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films and Pillars Fund inaugural fellowship) has won an esteemed Scotsman Fringe First award. Directed by John Hoggarth, this dynamic and lyrical coming-of-age tale considers two young men on the cusp of change, examining the pressures that surround young Muslim men today.
The Scotsman’s Joyce McMillan said, The show’s most striking quality, though, is its huge vitality; the raw physical energy and beauty of two boys entering manhood, their dreams, their hopes, their contrasting relationships with their families, and their unstoppable bantering wit. Anish Roy as the more thoughtful Mohsen and Varun Raj as the joker Kash deliver two superb matching performances, in John Hoggarth’s perfectly-pitched production; and the show is also driven along by Roshan Gunga’s thrilling score and sound design, full of terrific 21st century Asian beats that fully capture and celebrate the vivid lives of these two characters, who seem so real that they might have walked from the streets of any British city, straight onto the stage at the Pleasance Dome.
The Scotsman’s world-famous Fringe First awards have been recognising outstanding new writing premiered at the festival since 1973.
Considering how systemic racism and societal pressures push certain people along a relentless current, Brown Boys Swim examines how we can be prevented from being and understanding our most authentic selves. This exhilarating play looks deeper at the communities who are consciously and unconsciously forbidden from spaces like pools – where the strange looks and other micro-aggressions they receive are possibly a sign of something more insidious.
Karim Khan, writer of Brown Boys Swim comments, I’m absolutely thrilled and deeply grateful to see our show receive such recognition. It has always been a complete labour of love, and I’m so delighted to see the show being enjoyed by audiences.
Ria Parry, Co-Director of The North Wall, comments, We are so pleased and proud that Brown Boys Swim has received a Fringe First Award. Karim is an incredibly talented writer who we have been honoured to work with over the last couple of years at The North Wall. This award is a wonderful recognition and celebration of the graft that has gone into the writing and development of Karim’s brilliant play, and the fantastic team that has created such a superb production of his work.
Karim Khan is an alumnus of The North Wall’s ArtsLab programme – an artist development programme for early-career artists. The relationship with Karim and The North Wall has been developing since 2018 and, as well as being co-commissioners on this project, they have worked together to develop the play across the last year with John Hoggarth providing dramaturgical support.
