Shortlisted for Best Writer at The Stage Debut Awards 2023
Finalist for Most Promising New Playwright at the Offies Awards 2024

Look, gang, what we need to keep sight of is, this isn't about us. It's not personal...
It's about the children.

When two 9-year-old boys kiss in the school playground of a small town, two sets of parents are told to 'do something about it' - but neither of them are entirely sure what.

Amira is sending inclusive children's books to the school library, whilst her wife Chloe dreams of a kitchen island. Sarah is trying her best not to upset the Mum WhatsApp group, and her husband Matt just really wants to do the right thing - as soon as he can work out what that is. Luckily, here to guide our helpless humans are two cherubic winged guardians of the gays, summonsed to attend to a disturbance in the queer atmos and intervene only where strictly necessary. but where's the fun in being an ethereal being if you can't drop in and cause a scene wearing latex?

The Boys Are Kissing is a riotous comedy about angelic intervention, children's birthday parties gone sour, and whether it ever really is 'just about the children', written by 503Five 2019-20 alumni Zak Zarafshan.

This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Theatre503, London, in January 2023.

Zak Zarafshan is a British-Iranian playwright and screenwriter from the East Midlands, based in London. His debut play, The Boys Are Kissing, was developed as part of Theatre503's Writers In Residence scheme, the 503Five. He was previously a part of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab, Tamasha Playwrights Group, and was shortlisted for Channel 4's 4Stories scheme. Alongside writing, he works in television drama, helping other writers develop original dramas for the screen.