The second week of Brixton House’s Housemates Festival 2026 saw the highly-anticipated show We Can’t Be Friends take to the stage, with a sold-out five-night run from 8 to 12 September. The 70-minute show explores queerness in relation to religion, as two men – a devout Muslim and an ex-Muslim – connect, falling for each other and finding themselves in the process.
The complex subject matter was balanced beautifully with humour, evident as soon as Rahim (Saqib Bashir) burst on to stage, playfully narrating the story of how he stumbled into a mosque, having been estranged from his Muslim family after he came out. There, we meet our other character, Azhar (Ayan Philip), the mosque’s teacher, who immediately intrigues Rahim with his non-traditional mannerisms, unusual for a religious leader.
Speaking to writer Abir Mohammad, he explains that this balance was a deliberate choice: “I didn’t want it to feel like I was teaching people something. My aim was for it to feel like you’re just watching two people slowly fall in love, but also, people falling apart because their lives are just going into turmoil. I needed it to feel human, so I would shove in a Wicked reference, or a reference to Olivia Rodrigo, just to remind the audience that these are real humans with real interests.”
The pair bond over their love of theatre and film, but as their friendship deepens, so do feelings, and both of them have to confront a part of their identity they’d buried. Rahim unpacks his complicated feelings towards religion, trying to find a space for himself to exist as both queer and Muslim. Azhar grapples with his feelings for Rahim, as he is expected to lead and uphold his community and soon marry a woman.
Their contrasting experiences of reconciling faith and queerness are central to the play, as it resists presenting a singular interpretation of how the two should co-exist. “This is a story about understanding your own journey, your own idea of faith and queerness,” Mohammad says. “There’s not one way to be a queer Muslim.”
The play tastefully shifts from moving to hysterical, from heavy-hitting conversations between the pair as they struggle to see eye-to-eye, to a two-minute scene of Rahim passionately dancing to Little Mix in the club. Whether eye-watering or entertaining, it’s consistently emotive. Bashir and Philip complement each other perfectly, Bashir’s animated delivery – down to his micro-expressions – a foil to Philip’s composure. As a two-man cast acting against a minimal set, the two demand our attention, and prove they are worthy of it with their compelling performances, aided by the direction of Melina Namdar.
While the show has closed at Brixton House, Mohammed says that this is just the beginning for We Can’t Be Friends. “People reached out to us about the play from Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham, Bristol – but even people outside of the UK want to come and see it,” he says. “So the next stage is a multi-week UK tour, hopefully 2027. Then we would love to get a filmed version of it, just so people from across the world can see it. Then eventually take it to screen – my end goal is to have We Can’t Be Friends as a feature film.”
Featured image credit: Courtney Nathan Phillip
Join the discussion