Auka Productions Presents

HOT POT

A new play by Hongwei Bao

Four university friends reunite years later, at a hot pot restaurant, after the Covid pandemic.

Over bubbling broth and shared plates, their laughter peels back memories of simpler days, first love and naïve ideals. Conversation soon turns to the quiet divergences that time has carved: careers chosen and abandoned, families expected and resisted, compromises made for security and compromises refused in the name of being true.

Hot Pot is a tender examination of friendship and the small betrayals of adulthood. It traces the heartache of lost love, the friction between dreams and pragmatism, and the work it takes to remain authentic when the world insists otherwise.

Warm, inquisitive and rooted in East Asian perspectives, Hot Pot serves up a single night of conversation that explores gay identity with honesty and nuance, questioning what it means to belong to a place, society, partner, and one’s true self amidst a queer-unfriendly environment.

Content Advice: This play contains haze, partial nudity, references to homophobia, racism and parental death.

Reviews:

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Theatre Weekly
‘Strong writing, captivating performances…masterful storytelling… playwright Bao brings two of the most universal experiences to the stage: love and its partner, sacrifice.’

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Red Bus Londinium
'A moving production that looks through a valuable cultural lens and genuinely welcomes you into it… without making non-East-Asian audiences feel they are being educated at rather than spoken to.’

Operation Live Theatre
‘culturally sensitive, appropriate and stirring... a fantastic first attempt by Auka Productions to bring this complex and weighted story to the stage’

Once A Week Theatre
‘a labour of love from the new production company Auka… so much care has gone into both the preparation and presentation that Hot Pot is satisfying fare’

Rated Review
‘Warm and personable... packs in a lot of context and ideas, without ever feeling bloated or over-explained’