Malachi's been looking forward to a fresh start at uni for months. He's settling in, he's got a stack of books to read and he's met someone new - Kojo, a musician with a megawatt smile, who's basically perfect.

But something doesn't feel right. He keeps having the same nightmare - sinking, crushed by the weight of the ocean - and it's getting worse... A beast grows in the water, hungry, relentless, hunting him but always just out of sight. As the boundaries between nightmare and reality fracture, Malachi must fight harder than ever to stay afloat.

Kwame Owusu's play Dreaming and Drowning is an intimate and visceral deep-dive into the boundless mind of a young Black queer man wrestling with anxiety.

It is premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in December 2023, directed by Kwame Owusu.