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Romeo & Hamed
TNC THEATRE REVIEW | 2026
Romeo & Hamed
Riverside Studios
4 – 6 Sept | 14:00/19:00
Writer: Scott Horgan
Director: Maddy Corner
Images © Craig Fuller
Sept, 4, 2026
Back in 2024, Sinew Productions staged their first showcase at the Golden Goose Theatre in Camberwell, which included debut writer Scott Horgan’s Romeo & Hamed. Even at this stage, it was clear Horgan had tapped into something unique in his queer reimagining. Shakespeare is a challenge for anyone to try and get right. This past year alone, there have been 101 Romeo & Juliets that have unfortunately become formulaic.
Few modern productions are as brave as Baz Luhrmann's 1996 masterpiece. Shakespeare is best when the material is used as a starting block rather than a central source. Audiences tend to gravitate towards Shakespeare when a production is brave enough to modernise the material. This is what made the 1996 Romeo & Juliet groundbreaking: the American setting of Shakespeare’s romantic epic.
A council estate in Croydon is where Hogan has decided to lay his scene. Romeo, Horgan, being forced by his friends, Nico, Micah Loubon, and Boxer, Charlie Cassen, to go out, meets Hamed, Anish Roy, outside the club. Standing on a rooftop high above the city, Romeo and Hamed forge an indelible connection, one that will the fraught with external conflicts and internal pain.
Walking into Studio 3 at Riverside, you’re hit immediately by Hugo Dodsworth’s set, which was in the round. The simplicity of Dodsworth’s set never loses its impact and is a testament to the brilliance of contemporary theatre. This production is filled with social, political, and cultural references and the only way to tell this with any impact at all is to keep the set as simple as possible. Doing this allows the story to come out authentically and keeps the audience focused. Complementing Dodsworth’s set design was his lighting, which was the most innovative, creative, and impactful lighting design I’ve seen in quite some time. From where I was sitting, the lighting created two diagonal lines that looked like a cross. It might have just been my eyes, but I am pretty sure I saw what I saw. This subtle attention to detail would continue throughout the two acts.
Complementing Dosworth's lighting and set was Pouya Ehsaei’s sound design. Ehsaei’s soundscape was a beating heart, always atmospheric, and at times it felt futuristic. This added a timeless element to the production, which built the tension and anticipation.
OFFIE-winning director Maddy Corner's touch is minimalist. A theatre director can, at times, smother a production, leaving no chance of revival. Corner has connected with Horgan’s text in a way that, as an audience member, you become engrossed by the story and the believability.
For a debut, Horgan couldn’t have chosen a more challenging piece. A queer/muslim reimagening of Romeo & Juliet, in this political climate, I would be hesitant. But for me, these labels don’t matter as much because, though this is a queer retelling and an important aspect of the play focuses on Hamed’s faith, this isn’t its only identity. This is illustrated by there being zero focus on homophobia or Islamophobia. In fact, Romeo’s bisexuality is brought up within the first few lines. That felt genuine; it also meant that this tension that could have sadly anchored the piece isn’t there. Horgan allows his audience to connect with Romeo and Hamed, giving little breadcrumbs to their pain and fear. In the moment Romeo and Hamed finally kiss, you know how it will end, but in these moments Horgan allows joy and happiness to take up space. And this is wonderfully achieved without being overly sentimental. Horgan’s lyrical verse is much stronger at the start and softens slightly as the play goes on. And this works well as a counterbalance to the innocent joviality of the start and the dramatic twists as the play progresses.
When I first saw Romeo & Hamed in 2024, Boxer really stood out. There was something about him, his energy, his loyalty, that grabbed me the moment I saw him. Boxer is a friend who is loyal to the death. Cassen is captivating the moment the audience meets him. He brings a humanity and humour to Boxer that is deeply rich and feels real. Even the way his pet name for Hamed, ‘little lamb’, becomes affectionate towards the end is rather moving. Boxer is like so many characters we see who bring a wealth of life to a play and yet the audience don’t get to know them. The way Cassen disappears into Boxer is a credit to his skill as an actor.
The chemistry between Horgan and Roy is palpable. As playwright and co-lead, Horgan has a lot of skin in the game, which could have been detrimental to the production. They make you long for Romeo and Hamed’s love to survive, but at the same time they both carry such pain and confusion that it could destroy them either way. The moral of the story: true love, in its truest form, is destined to be lost. And yet even knowing that, one could watch Romeo & Hamed a second time, still with the hope that their love will survive.
Taz Rahman, Hamed’s sister, brings a childlike innocence to her role that’s comical throughout. Perhaps one of her funniest lines comes when she threatens her brother if he doesn’t take her with them to the club. This humour is carried by other characters: Grace, Dylan Morris, Romeo’s older sister and Nico’s partner. Morris brings a realism to Grace that makes every word authentic. Her relationship with Nico, by default, gives Romeo a brother and brings him closer to a family he seems to be desperate for. And Asif Khan, Iman Yusuf, is breathtaking. The humanity he brings to Iman Yusuf is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Khan’s delivery of the Iman’s Muslim-focused jokes cushions some of Horgan’s more salient lines.
"But I wanted him to go further and really tweak the ending. I would have encouraged him to switch the deaths and have Romeo die first, not Hamed."
I didn’t like the fact that Nico used a mic in the opening scene and just before the interval. It’s a personal preference of mine; I don’t like mic'd actors. It takes away the purity of their voices, creating an inauthentic sound. In such an intimate space, the sound becomes muffled and loud. This point is proven at the end when Nico returns to conclude the play. Loubon’s voice is solemn, genuine, and contemplative. Looking down at Romeo and Hamed, his voice conveys a sway of emotions that was hard to connect with at the beginning. Amplifying voices in theatre through mics can be beneficial sometimes, but not here; you needed to hear the care and love in Loubon’s voice.
Creating a contemporary queer reimagining means stepping as far away from the original material as possible, something Horgan has achieved with his debut play. But I wanted him to go further and really tweak the ending. I would have encouraged him to switch the deaths and have Romeo die first, not Hamed. This would have shocked the audience and, in those last moments, taken his audience in a completely new direction.
What’s clear is that the more this production is staged, the more I can see the creative team continue to adapt and take risks. The emotional truth that’s at the core of Romeo & Hamed lies in Horgan’s writing, which is filled with maturity, insight, and depth. His Romeo is a damaged man in need of love and a home. When one connects with a soul, all external noise is muted. On meeting Hamed, it’s not just his chosen family he’s found, but a future he didn’t think was possible.