Bush Theatre has announced that the run of Waleed Akhtar’s play The Real Ones will be extended to 26 October due to ticket demand. A funny and honest love letter to platonic soulmates, this world premiere production reunites the team behind the Olivier Award-winning sensation, The P Word, writer Waleed Akhtar, and director Anthony Simpson-Pike. The cast is Nathaniel Curtis (It’s a Sin, Channel 4), Nnabiko Ejimofor, Mariam Haque (When Winston Went To War With The Wireless, Donmar Warehouse) and Anthony Howell (A Thousand Blows, Disney+).
“I love you. Like genuinely I love you. You’re a real one.”
Best friends Zaid and Neelam shared a dream: get away, make it as playwrights, and build a future where they’re free to be themselves. Together, always.
Years later, things are far from what they expected. Zaid’s life has kinda stalled, half out of the closet, living at home, and still chasing the dream. While Neelam has taken a completely different path, as she chooses to prioritise her own happiness.
As their lives pull further apart and a mess of things left unsaid hangs between them, it becomes less and less clear if they’ll ever find a way back to each other.
Waleed Akhtar is a writer and actor. He was the recipient of the 2023 Peggy Ramsay/Film 4 bursary and was awarded an MGC Futures bursary winner in 2021. He won ‘Most Promising Playwright’ at The Offies 2023 and was nominated for the equivalent at The Evening Standard Awards. His play, The P Word won the ‘Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre’ at the 2023 Olivier Awards, alongside a nomination for ‘Best Play’ at the WGGB Awards in 2022.
Work for theatre includes: The P Word (Bush Theatre); Kabul Goes Pop: Music Television Afghanistan (Brixton House, Mercury Theatre, & HighTide); Sholay on the Big Screen (Off Stage Theatre, Bush & Nubian Life); I Don’t Know What To Do (co-creator – Vault Festival). His translation work includes Alexis Michalik’s The Art of Illusion (Hampstead Theatre); Famalam (Season 4 contributor); Sketchtopia and Newsjack (BBC Radio 4 – Contributor); Lost Paradise (Short film B3 Media/UK Film Council). He is currently under commission at the Almeida Theatre & Unicorn Theatre.
Work for television includes: The Road Trip (Paramount+/42MP) and a television adaptation of his hit play The P Word (House Productions). He is a current participant of the BBC Studios Spotlight scheme developing an original drama with Sid Gentle Films. His original audio play Mrs Bibi will be released by Audible in 2025.
As an actor his credits include Cruella, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and The Great.
Anthony Simpson-Pike is a director, dramaturg and writer. He was Deputy Artistic Director at the Yard Theatre, Resident Director at Theatre Peckham and Associate Director at the Gate Theatre. Recent directorial work includes Samuel Takes a Break… at The Yard Theatre, Beautiful Thing at Stratford East, Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors at the National Theatre (which transferred to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York in April 2024), and, at the Bush, Olivier Award-winning The P Word and Lava (nominated for ‘Best Director’ at the Black British Theatre Awards); and An Octoroon at the Abbey, Dublin (nominated for ‘Best Production’ at the Irish Times Theatre Awards).
Recent dramaturgical credits include Now, I See at Stratford East, Much Ado About Nothing for the RSC; Samskara at the Yard Theatre; Hotline with Produced Moon at the Tron; Dear Young Monster by Pete McHale for The Queer House; and Coup de Grace at the Royal Court.
Nathaniel Curtis plays Zaid. He is best known for his breakout role of Ash Mukherjee in Russell T Davies’ powerful Channel 4 series, It’s A Sin. Nathaniel’s theatre credits Include 2:22: A Ghost Story (UK Tour) Disruption (Park Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (UK Tour), The Tempest (UK Tour) and Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). On television he has appeared as Brían in The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix), Dolph Laserhawk in Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix (Netflix) and Isaac Newton in Doctor Who (BBC). His audio credits include: Torchwood – Cuckoo (Big Finish) and Auris (Audible).
Nnabiko Ejomofor plays Deji. Nnabiko trained at RADA and received an Olivier Award Nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his performance in For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, and he won the 2022 Stage Debut Award for ‘Best Performer in a Play’. Recent credits include: Now, I See (Stratford East); Jitney (Old Vic / Headlong); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (West End / Royal Court / New Diorama). Radio includes: Sarah Walker’s Sunday Morning Show. Short film credits include: Good Vibes Only and Figure. Nnabiko has previously been a dancer for Boy Blue Entertainment and won the Lilian Baylis Award.
Mariam Haque plays Neelam. Her theatre credits include When Winston Went To War With The Wireless (Donmar Warehouse), Folk (Hampstead Theatre, downstairs), The Living Newspaper (Royal Court), When the Crown Visit (The Kiln), Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth (RSC), Hometruths (Cardboard Citizens), Diana Of Dobsons (The New Vic), Dara and Behind the Beautiful Forevers (National Theatre), Almost Near & Hurried Steps (The Finborough Theatre), Crossed Keys (Eastern Angles), Invasion? (Tooting Arts Club), The House of Bilquis Bibi (Hampstead Theatre) and Monster Under the Bed (Polka Theatre). Her film and television credits include Joy (Netflix), Such Brave Girls, (BBC), Henpocalypse (BBC), Live at the Moth Club (Dave), What’s Happening? (Baby Cow), Plebs, The Finale (ITV), Midsomer Murders (ITV), Ladhood (BBC), Worzel Gummidge (BBC), This is Going To Hurt (BBC), What’s Love Got To Do With It (Studio Canal & Working Title), Pls Like (BBC), Finding Alive (ITV), Down From London (Topic), Trying (Apple), Homeland (Showtime), Flowers (Channel 4), Black Mirror and Shut Up & Dance (Netflix), Doctors, Eastenders, Holby City and Hunted (BBC), Benjamin & Wasteland (Open Palm Films) and Smear (Shadowhouse).
Anthony Howell plays Jeremy. His theatre work includes King Lear (Chichester Theatre/ATG), The Best Man (Bill Kenwright Ltd), The Heresy of Love and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Seagull (Southwark Playhouse), Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII (Shakespeare’s Globe), Jingo (Primavera), A Doll’s House and Portrait of a Lady (Theatre Royal Bath), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Nick Brooke Ltd), The Lifeblood (Lifeblood Theatre Company), And Then There Were None (Act Productions), Romeo & Juliet, The Comedy of Errors and As You Like It (RSC), The Geometry of Miracles (Ex Machina) and The Promise (Dalia Ibelhauptaite). On television he has appeared in A Thousand Blows (Disney+), Fool Me Once (Quay Street Pictures / Netflix), This Town (Kudos/BBC), Outlander (Sony/Starz/Leftbank), This England (Revolutions Films/Sky), Ransom (CBS), Luther (BBC), Medici – Kingdom of Gold (Lux Vide & Big Light Productions). Apocalypse Slough (Working Title/NBC for Sky), Crossing Lines (NBC), Dracula (Sky/NBC), Mr Selfridge and Shetland (ITV), Dirk Gently (ITV Productions for BBC4), Foyles War (ITV), Hawking (BBC Films), The Other Boleyn Girl (BBC Films), Frances Fyfield’s Helen West (ITV), Swallow (Channel 4), Ultimate Force (ITV) and Wives and Daughters (BBC). On film he has appeared in Diamond Sky (Fortunes Cap Productions), Widow’s Walk (In Your Face Films), Woman In Gold (Origin Productions) and Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book Of Vile Darkness (Silver Pictures).
This production is generously supported by Charles Holloway OBE.
Book your tickets here.
Written by Nura Arooj
