Waleed Akhtar’s new work proves himself as the quality portraitist he is in this new work. As the house lights were brought down the expectation was high from the audience in this follow up work to ‘The P Word’.

The Real One’s is epic with regard to the span of time and friendship covered. We follow the friendship of Neelam & Zaid over the course of 20 years as they both explore and discover themselves and deal with the various challenged life throws at them. Both start out as budding playwrights but over the course of time Neelam studies law and starts a family whereas Zaid find himself pursuing writing stolidly.

So many themes are covered; cultural viewpoints on homosexuality, interracial relationships, interfaith marriage, friendships, family, grief, miscarriage, personal trauma and all handled in an authentic way. This doesn’t necessarily always mean in detail because, such as is real in life, sometimes large things are hidden in the briefest of mentions and interactions. We meet Zaid & Neelam as young friends who know absolutely everything about each other. We too feel like we know everything about our two leads. However, as they age and grow apart, we begin to hear less and less interaction and revelation about their new selves.

Mariam Haque excels as Neelam. She brings a quick wit, humour and vulnerability to the strong engaging woman which Akhtar has written with affection. We never see her parents and yet feel we know them, the same for her child towards the end of the play. Mariam does that most testing trial for an actor, superbly under the direction of Anthony Simpson-Pike, of playing a both a believable 19- and 36-year-old. We feel the personal growth, the weight of adulthood and the joy of love.

Zaid (played by Nathaniel Curtis) throughout has a loveable charm and energy and we are invested completely in his journey as a budding playwright coming to terms not just with his own sexuality but how it would be viewed by his family. Zaid’s relationship with Jeremy (Anthony Howell) feels both joyous and painful and is woven with an understanding of human experience.

The play runs at 110 mins straight through. Although the lack of interval feels warranted to allow us to follow the journey uninterrupted it is a long time to be sat without reprieve, especially in studio theatre seats. The Bush has proven itself again as a leader of new writing and crafted drama.

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