This December, the Old Fire Station in Oxford is inviting audiences to step into the final days of 1999, a world of Woolworths pick ’n’ mix, party tunes, and the nervous excitement of a new century.
Running from 1–21 December 2025, ‘Before the Millennium’ is writer Karim Khan’s nostalgic and tender festive offering, blending humour, music, and memory. Set during a Woolworths Christmas party, the play follows Zoya and Iqra, best friends, Pakistani migrants, and co-workers on Cowley Road, as they navigate the night that could change everything.
Moving beyond the sparkle of seasonal theatre, Khan crafts a story about friendship, migration, and the fragile hope that bridges centuries. In a conversation with Asian Voice, Karim Khan discusses the inspirations behind this nostalgic yet sharp-edged festive tale.
What inspired you to choose a Woolworths Christmas party in 1999 as the backdrop for the story, and what does it represent for you?
Woolworths is so iconic and nostalgic - everyone has a special memory associated with it, and I wanted to take us back to a place and time that we all feel so much fondness for, especially as it no longer exists. 1999, to me, also feels like a time where there was so much hope and optimism. It was also a time where a lot of South Asian women of my mother's generation migrated. It's terrifying how migrants are being scapegoated and vilified by the state and media. I wanted to show how our migrants form the very fabric of the institutions and places we have so much fondness and love for.
What inspired you to explore migration, memory, and past choices in a festive setting, and how did your experiences shape it?
I think a festive setting felt like the perfect time to explore it because it’s always such a reflective time for all of us as we come to terms with our goals, our memories of the past year, and gather around our closest people. It’s a hard time for a lot of people because it reminds people of what they’ve lost or yearn for. To me this all organically fits and comes together in such a way I’d never imagined before. I think my own memories and references have seeped themselves in the play in lots of ways without me even realising it - both taking a trip down memory lane as well as feeling grounded in the present. Stories set in the past always have to be informed by what is happening right now, and I think this play absolutely feels that.
How did you craft Zoya and Iqra’s voices, journeys and friendship as powerful lens on migration and identity?
Zoya and Iqra are very different on paper - Zoya migrated here through marriage, Iqra migrated here for her studies at Oxford. They also have sizable class differences. And their personalities are also very different - there's a sweet innocence to Zoya, but she's equally sharp, perceptive and wise. Iqra has more of a feisty and sharp side and her ambitions are huge, but she holds a surprising frail and fragile side. She wants to change the world. They need each other and learn from each other about the value of life, and what it means to work and live in Britain.
How do you see ‘Before the Millennium’ contributing to wider conversations about migration, identity, and community in Britain today?
I hope it's a festive, joyous treat, and an opportunity for South Asian and Muslim audiences to see themselves represented vividly in a Christmas show. It's very easy to talk about migration and identity in a very politically front-footed way, but I hope this play will contribute something more unique to that conversation purely by existing, and showing South Asian women migrants experience radical joy, and the depth of a life-changing friendship.
If you could go back to your own self in 1999, what advice would you give him, especially now, as a playwright writing about that moment in time?
I would tell him to spend more time in Woolworths! And get a bag of pick n mix sweets. I would tell him to glean how everyone was feeling about 2000, what their hopes and dreams and fears were.
