East Is East

The play that gave birth to the smash-hit film – a wonderful comedy about growing up in multiracial Salford.

Pakistani chip-shop owner George Khan – 'Genghis' to his kids – is determined to give his six children a strict Muslim upbringing against the unforgiving backdrop of 1970s Salford. Household tensions reach breaking point as their long-suffering English mother, Ella, gets caught in the crossfire – her loyalty divided between her marriage and the free will of her children.

Ayub Khan Din's 'astonishingly assured first play' (Bimingham Post) premiered in 1996, in a co-production between Tamasha Theatre Company, Birmingham Rep and the Royal Court. The film adaptation that followed, with a screenplay by the author, became one of the most successful British films ever made.

This edition contains a revised version of the play first performed at the Trafalgar Studios, London, in October 2014, in a Jamie Lloyd production featuring playwright Ayub Khan Din as George and Jane Horrocks as Ella.

'What is remarkable about this play is its mixture of dramatic sympathy and delightful comedy' - Daily Telegraph

'a bona fide classic' - Guardian

'full of intelligence, irresistible laughter and serious promise' - Sunday Times

'A hugely entertaining, highly involving, emotionally tender, politically inflamed family drama' - Time Out