EAST IS EAST - THEATRE REVIEW

EAST IS EAST AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Tuesday 13 - Saturday 17 January 2015
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 14 January (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

At the risk of going there, it’s something of a charged time to be experiencing a show like East is East, given the recent political and social bubbling over the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris. As every Tom, Dick and armchair Harry attempts to define and dictate what Islam is and Muslims are, the answer, it seems, lies in a show set in a British Muslim household in the early 1970’s, based on a 1990’s film of the same name. It’s startling, and in a strange way quite refreshing, seeing how timeless and cyclical some of the central issues and themes are.

Mercifully, East is East remains confidently self-contained, and whilst granted there are the odd throwaway inferences of a ‘them versus us’ mentality to the wider British population, generally this is a show predominantly centred on a Muslim, Pakistani family dealing with a slew of issues and problems both religious and familial within and of itself. It’s infinitely more focused and compelling as a result, as proud, principled business owner George Khan (Ayub Khan Din, writer of both the play and the film) struggles to accept the changing times, personified in his six spirited, wilful and frequently disobedient children. Regimented, stubborn and fiercely proud, Khan is a skilfully written and masterfully played character - at times an aggressive, blindly ignorant borderline-tyrant, at others a whimsical, charming family man evidently trying to do best by both his family and religion in the way he has been raised and taught to do so. Neither extremity is painted as absolute, and in many ways Khan’s plight is the shows most compelling and touching thread, especially in this production. As he sits transfixed in front of his TV following the ensuing Indian-Pakistan civil war crises, a reporter cites ‘Pakistan will never be the same again’, and the analogy couldn’t be clearer. It’s the Pakistan of Khan’s home, head and heart that are just as much under attack, by the modernity and will of his own children, as any affairs on foreign soils.

NOISES OFF - THEATRE REVIEW

NOISES OFF AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 24 - Saturday 29 June 2013
Performance Reviewed: Monday 24 June (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

It’s a truth that often escapes audiences yet is almost universally acknowledged by actors/directors and other theatre talent alike that comedy, and in particular comedy of the slapstick, physical and farcical variety, is one of the most difficult and disciplined of theatre forms to pull off convincingly and satisfyingly. Too broad and the lampooning leads to audience disconnect, too specific or regimented and it feels stilted, insincere and, well, staged. To marry the natural buoyancy and vim of comedy with the precision and practice of physical slapstick and farce in particular is so tricky a balancing act that rarely does it work as successfully in theatre as it would in other mediums such as film or television, which allow themselves the luxury and safety net of cutaways, close-ups and the edit to mask the joins. When and where it does work, however, results in the kind of energised, barnstorming frenzy of farcical funny and theatrical hijinks that is Noises Off.