Jane Horrocks and Ayub Khan Din’s on stage East Is East family for the forthcoming revival of Din’s award-winning comedy at the Trafalgar Studios has been announced.
Amit Shah, Nathan Clarke, Ashley Kumar, Michael Karim, Darren Kuppan and Taj Atwal will play the six Khan siblings growing up in 1970s Salford under the eyes of their domineering Muslim father and English mother Ella.
Highlighting the clashes between the family’s Pakistani roots and Western values, Din’s hilarious and poignant drama sees household tensions build leaving Ella caught between her chip shop-owning husband and her children’s free will.
Award-winning actor Shah returns to the London stage to play Abdul in Sam Yates’ production following extensive credits at the National Theatre including Hansel And Gretel, The Comedy Of Errors and The Man Of Mode. A regular on stage, his credits away from the South Bank venue include turns at the Donmar Warehouse (King Lear), the Royal Court (Shades, The Spiral) and the Lyric Hammersmith (The Hot Zone).
Also returning to the London stage are Harry Potter’s Clarke, whose appearances include Pigeons at the Royal Court and Privacy at the Donmar Warehouse, and Karim who appeared in Skane at Hampstead Theatre and Mogadishu at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Kumar and Kuppan, who will play Tariq and Maneer, have both appeared on screen in high profile series. Kumar’s credits include EastEnders, Spooks and Omid Djalili’s Little Cracker, while Kuppan has been seen in Emmerdale, Coronation Street and The Chaos Theory.
Playing the family’s sole daughter Meenah is Atwal, whose screen credits include Miranda, Stella and Puja Nights.
The cast for East Is East is completed by ensemble members Sally Bankes, Pamela Bennett, Rani Moorthy, Deepal Parmar, Ash Rizi, Karl Seth and Hassani Shapi.
The production, which plays as part of the second Trafalgar Transformed season, follows Jamie Lloyd’s hugely successful Richard III into the theatre from 4 October.