I saw a production of East is East at The New Alexander Theatre. My first impressions were that I was very excited to watch this play because I could relate to this play and the title ‘East is East’ was interesting and made me wonder what will the play be about. I think the director Ayub Din Khan wanted to express the Asian culture and his experience to the British audience. I watched this performance on 15th January 2015. In this controlled Assessment, I will be analysing the performance of East is East. The key characters in the play were: Ayub Din Khan (George), Jane Horrocks (Ella) and Micheal Karim (Sajit). George (Ayub Din Khan) is the head of the Khan family, who tries to enforce his culture in a different society. He rose and grew throughout the play with is humour. I believe he is an obvious stereotype due to the clothing he wears. His clothing reflects that he is a typical, narrow-minded Pakistani father. His strong determination to help his family was evident throughout the play. Ella is the mother of 6 children, whose first priority is the happiness of her children. She is the wife of George who tries to keep the family together. Throughout the play, Ella delivers a fun and incredibly emotional scene with equal excellence. Sajit, the son of Ella is a vulnerable child and shows the impacts of the family problems through his quietness. The first thing I noticed was the set. The set was realistic and had different locations; living room, the Khan chippie, a hospital corridor, consultation room and outside spaces. This permits flexibility with the performance that helps immensely in illuminating the plays central themes – love, hatred, misunderstandings and cultural heritage. This worked well as the cast didn’t need to change the whole set by themselves; in fact they just moved around furniture. The way the characters entered and exited was effective because they used the performance space effectively: it was like they lived in one big house and there was limited space. It was set in an urban area, which suggests that it links to the Asian culture. I think the director chose to do this in order to express his experience, as his culture is Asian. The production used a proscenium stage and the audience was positioned opposite the stage. I think this stage was used well so the audience could the performance. Lighting was used very effectively for example the lighting was used to emphasize how the characters were feeling in a certain situation. In the play, when Sajit was upset due to family problems, dull lighting was used which made the atmosphere tensed. Also, the spotlight on Sajit highlights the vulnerability of Sajit, which gives a message to the audience. The director deliberately did this to make the audience realize how family arguments affect the way a child thinks and his life.