Hot Pot
A new play set over a shared meal examining friendship, gay identity and the small betrayals of adult life.
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Auka Productions presents a tender new play Hot Pot, following four university friends reuniting at a hot pot restaurant after the Covid pandemic, Hot Pot begins as easy laughter and the retelling of old misadventures. As they catch-up, the meeting slowly settles into a more searching conversation. Between shared plates of food and the simmering broth, layers of facade peel away to reveal how time has rerouted the friends in many ways. Hot Pot is a play that honours the complexity of friendship, identity and survival.
Drawing on the lived experiences of East Asian perspectives, the play explores gay identity with honesty and nuance against a cultural backdrop that can be hostile or indifferent. The conversations in the narrative about secrecy and the pragmatic demands of family and culture surface through the characters’ histories and revelations. The ordinary act of sharing a meal becomes an act of reckoning, questioning whether belonging demands conformity or can be rebuilt through chosen ties, and whether leaving is always liberation or sometimes another form of loss. The play invites audiences into an intimate single evening that subtly reframes how its characters understand home, love and the cost of authenticity.
Hot Pot is the debut production from new theatre company Auka Productions, founded by Struan Davidson and Windson Liong.
Where: Playhouse East, London, E8 4DG
When: Tuesday 16th June – Sunday 21st June 2026
Tickets: £18
Venue details
- Address:
- Playhouse East
- 258 Kingsland Road
- London
- E8 4DG