EAST IS EAST Trafalgar Studios 1

Ayub Khan-Din’s account of an Anglo-Asian family growing up in white working-class Salford in the 1970’s is now as much a period piece as are those other Salford comedies, Hobson’s Choice, Love on the Dole and A Taste of Honey. A devout Muslim refuses to accept that he is living in a different country, culture and time to his family. He expects total obedience; and if either his wife or seven children dare to question his actions, he beats them. The children, born and bred in Britain, do not want to be told whom they should marry. The comic tea party for the prospective in-laws may be very contrived, but it’s still hilarious. It’s difficult to imagine Jane Horrocks and Khan-Din actually being married and even more difficult to believe that Horrocks is the mother of seven; but the play works as a bit of history.