Review: East is East (Bolton Octagon)
Review by Jack McCabe
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A comedy-drama, set in Manchester, heavily featuring a fish and chip shop: many northerners will view that as the perfect recipe. Bolton Octagon’s latest production is an anniversary revival of Ayub Khan Din’s East is East, a story that explores the complications of family, cultural identity and religion. George Khan has lived in England for 30 years and works hard to keep his Pakistani traditions alive whilst his seven children develop their own identities in 1970s Salford. It is a production that attempts to find humour in difficult questions, but is this production suited for the modern world or should it have been left in the 1990s?
Khan Din’s writing may initially seem rooted in a very different Britain from the one we know today, yet its exploration of cultural identity, racism and family expectations remains remarkably relevant in 2026. Khan’s perception of a person’s desire to define themselves on their own terms, competing with the apparent demands of cultural norms, continues to have prominence today. Before the play begins, the audience are given a trigger warning for scenes containing domestic abuse and racism, which make for an uncomfortable watch as the play progresses. Still, the writing balances a huge degree of comedy with moments of considerable darkness. The story is not simply a nostalgic glance at 1970s Britain but one which asks the audience difficult questions about the society we live in.
That difficult balance between the comedic and darker moments in the play is one that is managed brilliantly by Kash Arshad, who directs this revival. Neither aspect of the play is allowed to overshadow the other. Instead, the direction utilises the lively energy of the Khan family, punctuated by laughs in every scene, to make the sudden shifts into conflict especially impactful. The cramped family home and fish-and-chip shop become a constant backdrop to the action, trapping the characters in their setting and demonstrating their inability to escape from what binds them together. Arshad’s direction also allows the story to feel less about one man’s attempts to control his family and more like an exploration of a whole family struggling to understand each other. The comedy is given the room it needs to breathe whilst never treating the uncomfortable aspects of the production lightly.
Rachana Jadhav’s set and costume design is perfectly pitched for this production, with a wide stage comprising the family home’s living room, garden and kitchen together with the family’s fish-and-chip shop. The staging creates an environment that feels lived-in and homely, and the characters always feel close to the audience, reflecting the lack of privacy in such a cramped home and adding intensity to the conflict when it arises. Jadhav’s costume design is effective in grounding the production in 1970s Manchester, reflecting the dress of that period. Costumes also capture the differing attitudes in the household based on what each character is wearing, with more contemporary Western styles reflecting the independence of certain characters.
The centre of this story is George, played by Bhasker Patel, whose performance perfectly captures the contradictions of the character: a man determined to preserve his heritage whilst struggling to understand a changing Britain. It must be very difficult for an actor to move their character between incredibly likeable and intensely villainous in a short space of time, yet this is a task which Patel achieves brilliantly. He is immensely funny as well as frightening and vulnerable. He gives George a commanding and authoritative presence whilst allowing glimpses of insecurity to shine through.
By George’s side is his wife, Ella, played by Samantha Power, who brings warmth, resilience and humour to a character caught between her husband and her children. Deeply loyal and down to earth, Power’s performance captures Ella’s attempts to be the peacekeeper in an increasingly fractured family, bringing an emotional depth to the character and allowing the audience to both laugh and sympathise with her in equal measure.
The family’s children are played by Zaki Ali, Maya Dhokia, Danyal Ismail, Matthew Khan, Rohan Macleod and Joeravar Sangha who work effectively as an ensemble creating the sense of a chaotic family rather than seven separate characters waiting for their individual moments. The cast, much like the siblings, bounce off each other easily and reflect what it truly means to be part of a large sibling group. Each establishes their character’s different responses to their father’s expectations, with a particularly special performance by Rohan Macleod as Sajit, the youngest sibling, caught in the chaos created by his older siblings. Macleod’s physicality and ability to convey so much whilst saying very little is wonderful to see. It was a shame to not be able to hear more about each of the character’s individuality and narrative throughout the performance, particularly Tariq and Meenah’s, but that must be a consequence of a story focusing on such a large sibling group.
This anniversary revival demonstrates why East is East still has plenty to say, combining sharp humour with the realities of family, identity and conflict. This is a powerfully funny production with real dark moments, performed by a talented cast who each bring energy to their characters and build a world which the audience can truly invest in.
East is East plays at Bolton Octagon until 3 October. Tickets from https://octagonbolton.co.uk/events/east-is-east