Written by Ayub Khan Din
Directed by Kash Arshad
Octagon Theatre Bolton
★★★☆☆
East is East, the Ayub Khan Din 1996 comedy about a Pakistani/British family has become a modern classic. This new anniversary production, directed by Kash Arshad, returns us to Salford in 1971 and to the chaotic Khan household, where George Khan attempts to impose his Pakistani traditions upon a brood of children who are far more interested in denim, dating and being defiantly and definitively Northern. George is worried about the war back home and desperate to find suitable Pakistani brides for his sons while at home and at the family run chippy, cultures collide, tempers erupt and teenagers behave with nonchalant disregard for parental authority.
There is no denying the muscular comic power of Khan Din’s writing. The script bounces along, crackling with insults, sibling warfare and observational comedy so sharply drawn that laughter ensues even when there is a corresponding discomfort about the subject matter. The Khan children bicker, tease and torment one another trading words like bullets as the production captures the boisterous, claustrophobic energy of a family permanently one argument away from combustion.
Bhasker Patel delivers a George full of worries, bluster and buffoonery but with an increasingly troubling undercurrent of frustrated violence. Samantha Power brings warmth and grit to Ella, the English mother forever attempting to keep the domestic plates spinning while the household beneath them threatens to collapse. Her powerhouse performance of a Northern, working woman straddling two cultures is where the emotional heart of this production beats strongest.
Zaki Ali makes a particularly charismatic Tariq, armed with a sharp tongue and just the right level of teenage swagger for The Seventies. Joeravar Sangha as Maneer provides an interesting counterpoint, embodying a different relationship to heritage and faith, while the younger members of the ensemble bring plenty of rambunctious energy, especially Maya Dhokia as a feisty, fiery Meena. The star of the night is however is Rohan Macleod who is utterly captivating as the parka clad, twitching boy who struggles to exist in the family chaos. His blend of comic timing and deft performance is a real joy to watch.
The main difficulty with East is East is that what once felt startlingly daring now occasionally shows its age. The misogyny, hypocrisy, casual homophobia and, most significantly, George’s domestic violence sit awkwardly beside the riotous comedy. The play asks us to laugh with this family, but there are moments when the production does not quite interrogate hard enough the ugliness lurking beneath the jokes. That tonal imbalance is this production’s only stumbling block. The comedy is confidently amplified, but the darker material sometimes arrives without sufficient dramatic weight, as though the play’s emotional pitch itself oscillates just like its characters do culturally.
And yet, East is East endures because family life is often messy and racial integration is too complex never to fit neatly into a neat solution. The Octagon’s production is lively, well cast and frequently hilarious, even if it does not always excavate the darker complexities of this increasingly complicated modern classic.
★★★☆☆
Bolton Octagon Theatre until October 3rd 2026, then on tour.
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