Now thirty years on Ayub Khan Din’s East Is East returns to its northern roots for an anniversary production directed by Kash Arshad. Fresh from Broadway and making a welcome return to the Octagon, is stage and screen actor Bhasker Patel (Oedipus, Broadway & West End; Emmerdale ITV) who leads a stellar cast as the patriarchal George alongside Stockport-born actor Samantha Power (Brassic, Sky; Madame Blanc, Channel 5) as his wife Ella. East Is East opens at Octagon Theatre before touring to Derby Theatre from Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 October 2026, also Citizen’s Theatre, and Wiltshire Creative’s Salisbury Playhouse
Exploring identity, generational conflict and the unbreakable bonds of family the cast of this razor-sharp comedy also includes Zaki Ali (Good Ship Murder, Channel 5; First Days Gala, National Youth Theatre) Victoria Brazier (The Memory of Water, Octgaon Theatre; The Snow Queen, Dukes Lancaster) Sushil Chudasama (No Such Thing as Ordinary, Royal Exchange; Number One Fan, Channel 5) Maya Dhokia (The Jungle Book, Theatre by the Lake; Gorgon, Short Film), Zoe Iqbal (Odd Squad, CBBC; Erotic Novel Gone Wrong, JB Shorts) Matthew Khan (Waterloo Road, BBC; Hamlet, Gatehouse Theatre) Joeravar Sangha (All’s Well That Ends Well, Royal Shakespeare Company; East is East, National Theatre), Rahul Sidhu (Try Running Now, Short Film; The Buckingham Murders, Feature FIlm) and Danyal Ismail (Virdee, BBC; Ridley, ITV).
Completing the cast, is Rohan MacLeod who steps from his part-time job is the Octagon’s restaurant and café onto the mainstage of the theatre to take on the role of Sajit Khan. He last appeared on the Octagon’s stage in 2017.
In early 1970s Salford, the Khan family are 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. Meanwhile their seven children are busy discovering disco, denim, and defiance. When George begins arranging marriages for his sons, rebellion erupts and loyalties are tested. What follows is a hilarious and deeply moving battle between tradition and change.
Kash Arshad, Director of East is East said:
“East is East is my story. There are not 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 directing journey and to be able to share it with audiences in Salisbury, Derby and the Citizens in Glasgow, my local theatre in my late teens/early twenties and where I first set foot on a professional stage, is a dream.
The play is a modern classic, with brilliantly observed, memorable characters. And at its heart a strong matriarch in Ella holding this family of misfits together – She reminds me so much of my own mum. It’s raucous, moving, full of truth and really funny.”
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