HOT POT
Hot Pot, a play by Hongwei Bao
OUT NOW!! Get your copy here
WORLD PREMIERE TOUR
16th JUNE – 5th JULY 2026
Tickets here
London / Nottingham / Leeds / Bristol / Langton Green / Derby
In this tale of friendship, love, and authenticity, four friends reunite at a hot pot restaurant after the pandemic, reminiscing about their past while navigating the realities of their diverging life paths.
It is a tender examination of friendship and the small betrayals of adulthood. The play 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.
Hot Pot was first produced by Auka Productions and toured to Playhouse East (London), Nottingham Lakeside Arts, Stage@Leeds, Bristol Loco Klub, Derby Theatre and Langton Green Festival in Summer 2026. The Production was supported by the University of Nottingham and UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Cast for Premiere Tour:
TAO……………………………….………….…………….Windson Liong
LIN…………………………….………………………………Michelle Yim
MING…………………………………………………….Struan Davidson
MEI…………………………………………………………..Shin-Fei Chen
Playwright, Hongwei Bao bio:
Hongwei Bao is a UK-based playwright, poet and academic. He is the author of The Passion of the Rabbit God (Valley Press), Queering the Asian Diaspora (Sage) and Self-Portrait as a Banana (Poetic Edge). He is a Fifth Word Playwright, Middle Way Mentee and Birmingham Hippodrome Creative. Hongwei serves on the boards of New Earth Theatre and New Nottingham Journal.
Poetic Edge Publishers 