Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Platonic soulmates are having their moment in the spotlight on the London stage. With new musical Why Am I So Single? blazing away in the West End, here too is Waleed Akhtar’s touching exploration of friendship. The two couldn’t be more different in style and yet both foreground the importance of love between friends — specifically, in both cases, between a queer man and a straight woman.But where the musical sticks with one evening in the lives of Nancy and Oliver, Akhtar’s drama spins over nearly 20 years, tracing the highs and lows of Zaid and Neelam’s friendship and the way the two are buffeted by social prejudice, family and cultural pressures and economic realities. This time, relationships are complicated by the fact that both characters come from strict Muslim families.Akhtar’s last work for the Bush was the immensely moving The P Word about two gay men, one Pakistani, the other British-Pakistani. The Real Ones has the same quality of emotional honesty. There are moments in Anthony Simpson-Pike’s production when the characters seem to strip off a layer of skin: the exuberance at their discovery that they can confide in each other aged 19 matched by the harrowing frankness of a blazing argument later in life.That is met by two wonderfully open and believable performances from Nathaniel Curtis and Mariam Haque. They have great chemistry. When we first meet their characters, high and buzzing, Curtis and Haque burst like excited puppies on to Anisha Fields’ circular pit of a set. But Curtis subtly changes from a raw teenager, terrified of coming out, into a more complex 36-year-old, successful yet still riddled with doubts. Haque modulates from a brittle, brilliant rebel into a more grounded wife and mother. Gradually, their paths begin to diverge.The play’s ambitious scope and episodic nature also undermine it, however. There are too many issues, many of them covered in quite short scenes. Both characters suffer huge loss and grief. There’s a strand about representation in theatre, with a posh white director, Jeremy (Anthony Howell), asking Neelam to change her work to make it more accessible to a white audience. Zaid, who ends up in a relationship with Jeremy, never comes out to his father; Neelam’s partner, a British Nigerian man, Deji (Nnabiko Ejimofor), has to convert to Islam so that they can get married.All these areas feel like they need more time, as do the relationships with the romantic partners. It’s uneven, then, but, at its best, this is a beautifully frank tribute to platonic friendship.★★★☆☆To October 26, bushtheatre.co.uk
