East is East: Creativity, Impact, Legacy

This special panel talk is part of Bhuchar Boulevard's Retracing Our Footsteps initiative to create a British South Asian Theatre Archive

+44 (0)20 7942 2000
  • V&A South Kensington

    Cromwell Road
    London, SW7 2RL
  • Hochhauser Auditorium, Learning Centre

  • Free event

East is East: Creativity, Impact, Legacy  photo

Join us for a conversation on the influential play East is East, with the creative team from the first production in 1996. Hear from director Kristine Landon-Smith, designer Sue Mayes, actor Paul Bazely and Iqbal Khan and Natasha Kathi-Chandra, the director and associate director of the 25th-anniversary production. The talk will be chaired by Sudha Bhuchar, co-founder of Tamasha Theatre and current Artistic Director of Bhuchar Boulevard.

Set in Salford during the 1970s, East is East examines the push and pull of growing up in a working-class, mixed-race household. Nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, East is East has since become a beloved classic, adapted into a feature film in 1999. The play has recently enjoyed a 25th-anniversary tour in Birmingham and London.

Header image: Chris Bisson (b.1975) as Saleem Khan, Zita Sattar (b.1975) as Meenah Khan and Jimi Mistry (b.1973) as Tariq Khan, in Ayub Khan-Din's (b.1961) East is East at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Studio, photo Douglas H. Jeffery (1917-2009). Photograph. London, England, 1996 © Douglas H. Jeffery / Victoria and Albert Museum, London