Bolton's 30th anniversary production of 'East is East'

Ayub Khan Din’s award-winning family comedy East Is East returns to its northern roots for a 30th anniversary production at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton (September 4-October 3). The cast will be headed by Bhasker Patel (Oedipus, Broadway and West End, Emmerdale) as the strict head of the family, and Stockport-born Samantha Power (Brassic, Madame Blanc) as his wife.

In Salford in the early 1970s, the Khan family is living above a chip shop and on the fault line between two cultures. George Khan is determined to raise the family to follow his Pakistani way. His English wife, Ella, just wants to keep the peace, and their seven children are busy discovering disco, denim, and defiance. When George begins arranging marriages for his sons, rebellion erupts and loyalties are tested.

The comedy's director, Kash Arshad, started his career at the Octagon: “East is East is my story," he said. "There aren't many plays that speak to the experience of being brought up in a Muslim household, with a white British mother and a Pakistani father who ran his own business, with kids who felt not British enough to be British nor Pakistani enough to

be Pakistani.

"To get the opportunity to direct this play at the theatre where I started my career, and to be able to share it with audiences where I first set foot on a professional stage, is a dream.

"The play is a modern classic, with brilliantly observed, memorable characters and a strong matriarch, Ella, at its heart, holding the family of misfits together. She reminds me so much of my own mum.

"The show is raucous, moving, full of truth and really funny.”

The cast also includes Zaki Ali (Good Ship Murder, First Days Gala); Victoria Brazier (The Memory of Water, The Snow Queen); Sushil Chudasama (No Such Thing as Ordinary, Number One Fan); Maya Dhokia (The Jungle Book); Zoe Iqbal (Odd Squad, Erotic Novel Gone Wrong); Matthew Khan (Waterloo Road, Hamlet); Joeravar Sangha (All’s Well That Ends Well, East is East); Rahul Sidhu (Try Running Now, The Buckingham Murders) and Danyal Ismail (Virdee,Ridley).

Rohan Macleod steps out from his part-time job in the Octagon’s Kitchen and bar and on to the stage as a member of the Khan family!

East is East is a joint production between Octagon Theatre Bolton, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and Wiltshire Creative, in association with Derby Theatre.

More info and tickets here