Oxford play about Muslim men learning to swim starts national tour

For playwright Karim Khan, it was "really important" to depict "real experiences" from Oxford's South Asian community

An award-winning play about pressures faced by young Muslim men has embarked on a national tour.

Brown Boys Swim, which has won awards at Edinburgh Fringe, tells the story of two friends on a race to teach themselves to swim.

Playwright Karim Khan, from Littlemore, Oxford, said the play had provoked "a lot of thought and feelings" from the audience.

"I wanted to represent the truer, more familiar version of the city," he said.

After winning The Popcorn Writing Award and the Scotsman Fringe First award in 2022, Brown Boys Swim has embarked on its first national tour

Brown Boys Swim follows best friends Mohsen and Kash who are gearing up for a pool party but having to overcome the obstacle that they cannot swim.

The pair learn how to be at one with the water, "fuelled by halal Haribo and chicken wings" and tackling challenges such as cramped cubicles.

Mr Khan said he had realised that "people within the South Asian community learned to swim a lot later or couldn't swim".

"I remember going to school I was one of the few people who couldn't swim," he said.

"I was thinking back to that experience and I really wanted to make a really fun, joyous coming of age story... but also using swimming itself as a metaphor to tap into other experience about what it means to grow up... and thrive in a world where the systems are not quite built for you and trying to explore systemic and institutional racism."

Mr Khan said the play showed moments where the boys were being stopped and searched by security guards.

"The actors who came in identified with the experience of being scrutinized in that way," he said.

Mr Khan said that actors Kashif Ghole (left) and Ibraheem Hussain (right) could identify with the themes in the play

For him it was also important to inject humour while provoking "a lot of thought and feelings".

"There are so many references to Oxford in it like the LTNs, for example," he said.

"It's always very funny to hear an audience respond to those references."

Mr Khan said he had wanted to explore the experiences of the people "who actually live in Oxford, the working class community".

"For me, with Brown Boys Swim in particular, it was important to write about Oxford but through a different perspective," he explained.

"In places like Cowley Road, you can feel the marked difference that the South Asian community and lots of migrants from other communities have left in the city.

"I hope this plays shows a love for the city, as much as it shows a satirical portrayal."

Karim Khan said he wanted to create "a really fun, joyous coming-of-age story" while provoking "a lot of thought and feelings"

With the play already being "very successful, very quickly" at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, this year Mr Khan wanted to "bring it back, give it more life, and also take it to places around the country, and get out of the bubble".

"It brings the audience to feel what it means to be young or have incredible friendships," he said.

"It's interesting how it became quite natural."

He added he was working on other projects where he would "continue to explore Oxford as a landscape and as a character".

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