Adil Akram talks acting, writing and his school days at Ernest Bevin

We met up with Adil to talk about Bokhari’s Boyz, his new play in development, based on his school days at Ernest Bevin Comprehensive Secondary School with a focus on former headmaster Naz Bokhari. 

Mr Bokhari was the first headmaster of a secondary school in the UK from a South Asian Pakistani Muslim background.

Adil said he wanted to tell “A story about a local Wandsworth person who was a humble guy who was a consequential role model without intending to be. Later in life you realise that he was a figure of authority or achievement in your life at a time when in wider society there had not been many visible figures of success or leadership from a similar background.” 

Taking inspiration from Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, the play is a humorous exploration of the relationship between a class of boys in the 1990s and their headmaster. 

He said: “Being a young Asian boy seeing the head of our school who is also from a similar background be the person in charge and think that it is not unusual - to go to university, contribute to the community and become part of the working and cultural life of the UK.”

Adil has not contacted Mr Bokhari’s family saying: “It should be a story in and of itself. It’s not autobiographical. It’s meant to be a story using artistic licence, based on a real person trying to run a school, trying to help people from a mixture of backgrounds. In the story it may end up being more about the kids than about him. I don’t want to place people I specifically knew in it. I don’t think that is the best way to explore that story. I think it’s better to have elements of real people but expand on that, fictionalise it, and make it dramatic as it has to work as a story in its own right.”

Adil has been a professional actor for 10 years and studied Drama at Arts Educational School later on in life. 

“I think when I was young the idea of being an actor seemed so distant. It wasn’t even something that was credibly a career option. It was only much later I could see that actually people have stories that need to be told, and the cultural space has opened up for this. There is a place for British South Asian stories and characters on stage and screen and the net for casting has also widened. There is more colourblind casting now, reflecting modern society and people from diverse backgrounds being British. Bokahri’s Boyz indirectly touches on the early influences contributing to this.”

On the differences between acting and writing Adil said: “One of the pleasures of acting is that you meet so many lovely people in that creative endeavour through collaboration; devising, rehearsal, performance. Writing is different because often you are on your own but when it gets time to perform and share the work is the nicest feeling to get it on its feet and involve other people to share ideas.”

The very same week he received the Cultural Micro-commission he also learnt he had landed a supporting part in Hamlet at the National Theatre. 

He said: “I couldn’t turn it down. It was a historic production, with Hiran Abeysekera playing Hamlet and Ayesha Dharker playing Queen Gertrude – the first South Asian actors to play these roles at the National Theatre. It was a privilege to be a part of it. You know how you have an idea of what it might be like to perform somewhere like that? It was even better than what I hoped it would be. You are working with people at the top of their game in every creative endeavour. From the costumes to the make up to the set design to the lighting, sound design, acting and directing. It was a real pleasure to work with people who were so welcoming and that was the really lovely surprise. You think they might be snobbish or stuffy, but they were not at all.”

The play has a large cast and Adil said: “All 28 of us were used to convey the scale and the stakes of that epic story. It will also be available in cinemas on NT Live from January 22nd.” 

His next project will be working on writing and devising the play, Bokhari's Boyz and he is hoping to develop and stage it at his local theatre, Tara Theatre. 

Find out more about our Cultural Micro-Commissions.

Photo by Matt Jones.