The past shows featured here represent the foundations of Dhamaka Arts and the creative journey so far. Each production has explored unheard, hidden and intersectional stories rooted in lived experience, opening conversations around queerness, family, shame, identity, belonging and survival.
From intimate early performances to larger-scale theatrical work, these productions have helped shape the voice, values and future of Dhamaka Arts. While some shows are currently resting, evolving or preparing for future touring opportunities, each remains an important chapter in the company’s ongoing artistic journey.
These works are more than past productions. They are creative milestones, acts of visibility and reminders of the stories that continue to deserve space on stage.
Besharam: [Shame-Less] (2023)
Shame the final Frontier….
“These are the voyages of the star ship Besharam [shame-LESS]…”
Written and performed by Sid Akbar, Besharam [shame-LESS] – Shame The Final Frontier is an autobiographical coming out show that premiered in Bradford in June 2023 at Kala Sangam to packed audiences and enthusiastic response.
Blending sci-fi, campness, humour and deeply personal storytelling, the show tells a personal and political story in a playful and honest way. Rooted in Sid’s experience of growing up queer and Pakistani in Bradford, Besharam explores what it means to long for a future where it feels safe and acceptable to fully be yourself, and whether that future can sometimes feel like science fiction.
Throughout the show, Sid faces reality, explores alternatives and explodes the limitations placed upon identity through family, faith, culture and shame. Beyond shame are survival, healing and fabulous rainbows of possibility. Through humour, vulnerability and theatrical worldbuilding, Besharam invites audiences to join Sid’s journey to take up space like no queer, brown Bradfordian has done before.
The production marked the debut of Dhamaka Arts and the beginning of Sid Akbar’s ongoing trilogy of work exploring shame, belonging, queerness and survival. Developed through Bradford Producing Hub’s Make Work programme, the show was supported using public funding from Bradford Council and Arts Council England, alongside support from Kala Sangam and Theatre in the Mill.
While Besharam [shame-LESS] is currently resting, the production remains tour-ready and available for future touring opportunities and festival programming. The show continues to stand as an important milestone in the artistic journey and vision of Dhamaka Arts.
Nikah (2017)
Written and performed by Sid Akbar and directed by Leah Francis, Nikah was Sid’s first solo theatre show and marked the beginning of his journey into autobiographical and intersectional storytelling.
Premiering in 2017 at Theatre in the Mill in Bradford, with later sharings at Camden People’s Theatre and Ovalhouse Theatre in London, Nikah explored Sid’s experience of being forced into marriage at the age of 15 within a British Pakistani Muslim context. Blending personal storytelling with subtle hints of queerness, the work examined the pressures of family expectation, cultural duty, silence and survival.
Raw, intimate and deeply honest, Nikah opened the door to the themes that would later become central to Sid Akbar’s creative practice and the future vision of Dhamaka Arts. The production challenged audiences to confront difficult conversations around identity, autonomy and belonging, while centring a perspective rarely seen represented on UK stages.
Although created before the formation of Dhamaka Arts, Nikah remains an important part of the company’s artistic roots and the foundation from which Sid’s later work evolved.
