East is East
The Alhambra

GEORGE Khan despairs of his chaotic family. He wants his sons to get their hair cut, wear a suit and tie, knuckle down, be good Muslims and take advantage of the opportunities that he didn’t have.

“I came here with nothing,” he never tires of telling his six children. Familiar words, no doubt, to the British Asian offspring of many first generation settlers.

And, like many first generation migrants in the industrial North, George has worked hard and done well, setting up a fish and chip shop and providing for his family.

But this is a mixed race family, born to a Pakistani father and a white English mother. Feisty teenagers Tariq, Saleem, Maneer, Abdul, Meenah and Sajit are torn between the traditional values of their strict father George – a man they refer to as “Genghis” - and their burning desire to be a part of modern Britain.

Set in 1970s Salford, when the words of Enoch Powell echoed down back-to-back terraced streets shared by early Asian immigrants and white neighbours, Ayub Khan-Din’s semi-autobiographical play is a powerful snapshot of the conflicts and tensions within a multi-cultural household.

Much of the humour comes from the foul-mouthed siblings’ bickering, teasing and frustrations, and from their mother Ella’s musings over pots of tea with nosy neighbour Auntie Annie. But it’s also a moving, occasionally brutal, portrayal of a family reaching breaking point. As George prepares to marry off his older sons, there’s an uneasy sense that he will inevitably lose those who resist.

This lively production, with a grimy backstreet set serving as the Khans’ living-room and chip shop, is billed as a “long awaited revival of a modern comedy classic” and, judging by the belly laughs and cheering from the Alhambra auditorium, it continues to resonate with contemporary audiences.

I can’t shake off the feeling that it’s a play very much of its time. It’s a period piece, set nearly half a century ago, and I’m not sure how relevant it remains for today’s young British Asians in what is a very different world.

That said, this was an impressive production with a strong cast pretty much on stage the whole time. The play rests largely on the father, and Simon Nagra was excellent as domineering George Khan, capturing his complexities beautifully.

On the surface George is a bully whose communication with his children barely extends beyond a clip around the ear, but there is tenderness too, not least in the scenes with his wife. It is credit to Khan-Din’s writing and Sam Yates’s direction that these scenes shifted so seamlessly to darker moments of conflict, and it’s a shame that several audience members didn’t appreciate this. Their titters during scenes of domestic violence were, frankly, inappropriate.

Pauline McLynn brought warmth to Ella, caught in the crossfire between her marriage and her children’s free will, and there were strong performances too from Darren Kuppan as gentle Maneer, Assad Zaman as creative Saleem, Ashley Kumar as headstrong Tariq, and Sally Bankes as Annie.

Runs until Saturday.