Skip navigation
< Back : Your location : Productions :

East is East

by Ayub Khan-Din

This is a co-production with Pilot Theatre, York Theatre Royal and the Octagon Theatre Bolton. It was on tour from September 2005 and received great responses nationally. We were on tour until April 1st 2006

Directed by Damian Cruden, with Asha Kahlon as staff director on tour and designed by Laura McEwan and Lit by Ciaran Bagnall

East is East by Ayub Khan-Din has now finished its six month tour. 131 performances! a really successful tour. A big thanks to the whole touring team Andrew, Mark, Jen, Stuart, and the cast - Janys, Marc, Damian, Sarah, Davood, Chris, Roxsaneh, John, Aftab and Adam Deacon who is one of the stars of the new movie Kidulthood

East is East is the hilarious and moving story of what happens when two cultures collide within one family.

For George Khan ('Genghis' to his kids), life is an uphill struggle to get his family to conform to traditional Pakistani values. But this is Salford in the 1970s. George's wife Ella is Lancashire born, and his seven kids have got minds of their own. Tomboy Meenah prefers playing footie to wearing a sari, hippy Saleem pretends to be studying engineering when he's really at art school, heart throb Tariq has got a reputation as local Casanova, and Sajid hasn't even been circumcised yet.

With one disastrous arranged marriage in the family already, George plots to bring his next two sons into line by marrying them off to the daughters of Mr Shah. When the Khan kids begin to oppose their father's petty tyrannies, Ella is forced to make a choice between her husband and the right of her children to make their own ways in the world.

East is East is Ayub Khan-Din's writing debut, but he has acted in various productions, including Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and the TV series London Bridge.

This play is set in Salford, in 1970, where the Khan children are buffeted this way and that by their Pakistani father's insistence on tradition, their English mother's laissez-faire, and their own wish to be citizens of the modern world.

East is East Education pack now online Click here.

Original production produced by Tamasha Theatre Company, The Royal Court Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Company.  First performed at Birmingham Rep Studio Theatre in October 1996