True Brits

The old lady on this train is looking at me, staring at me, she's been doing it since New Eltham, I can feel her eyes on the sweat on my neck. I turn ro catch her out, and she flicks her head back to her book, like she's subtle, but she ain't. I wish she'd just punch me, y'know? The punch I can take, but the look . . . all these frightened half-glances they . . . they just . . .

When a violent encounter leads to a whirlwind romance, young Rahul is more than willing to be caught up. But in the aftermath of 7/7, his world changes in ways he cannot control, drawing him into ever-darker places as he struggles to remain part of a British society that now distrusts him on sight.

Sweeping between the paranoid London of 2005 and the euphoric city of the 2012 Olympics, HighTide Escalator writer Vinay Patel's debut play is an honest, humorous, hopeful play about wanting to love and be loved. By your crush. By your friends. By your country. True Brits received its world premiere on 31 July 2014 at the Assembly Hall, Baillie Room, Edinburgh.

Vinay Patel, one of HighTide's writers on attachment 2014, studied for an MA in Writing for Stage & Broadcast at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating with distinction in 2011. Since then he has won competitions run by IdeasTap, the BBC, the National Youth Theatre and Shine Drama. He has had work performed at the Bush Theatre, Theatre503, RichMix and the HighTide Festival amongst others. Most recently his play, Bump, ran at the Brockley Jack Studio in May 2013 as one of the winners of Write Now 4.