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

The six Khan children, entangled in arranged marriages and bell-bottoms, are trying to find their way growing up in 1970s Salford. They are all caught between their Pakistani father's insistence on Asian traditions, their English mother's laissez-faire attitude, and their own wish to become citizens of the modern world.

Ayub Khan Din's play East is East was first performed at Birmingham Repertory Studio Theatre in October 1996 in a co-production by Tamasha Theatre Company, the Royal Court Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Company, before transferring to the Royal Court, London. It was later adapted into a feature film, with a screenplay by the author, that became one of the most successful British films ever made.

East is East won the John Whiting Award in 1996 and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1998.

About the Author
Ayub Khan Din's play East is East (1996) was originally staged at the Royal Court Theatre and adapted into a feature film. The play and film have won a Writers' Guild Award for Best New Writer and a British Academy Award. Other plays include Last Dance at Dum Dum (1999), Notes on Falling Leaves (2004) and Rafta, Rafta... (2007), which won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. A film adaptation, All in Good Time, was released in 2012, a year after his sequel to East is East, named West is West. His most recent plays have been All the Way Home, directed by Mark Babych at the Lowry Theatre in Salford, musical comedy Bunty Berman Presents, produced on Broadway by The New Group, and an adaptation of E.R. Braithwaite's To Sir, With Love.

Reviews

'A bona fide classic'

* Guardian *

'First plays don't come much better than this... full of intelligence, irresistible laughter and serious promise'

* Sunday Times *

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

* Time Out *

'An explosion of a show that feels surprisingly, joyously, fresh, a quarter of a century on'

* Guardian (2021) *
'Khan Din's play is bitterly and wickedly funny... Its explorations of identity, race, relationships, power, gender dynamics and familial aspiration ensure it still has as much to say to audiences of 2021 as it did 25 years ago' * Whatsonstage (2021) *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the John Whiting Award 1996.



Book Information
ISBN 9781854593139
Author Ayub Khan Din
Format Paperback
Page Count 91
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books
Weight(grams) 95g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 130mm * 6mm