I Saw a Life Performance at Birmingham Repertory Theatre

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On 29 of September 2009, I went to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to watch the live performance of east is east, and then we have been told to write a theatre review explaining the story of the play, the set, the characters costume, actor’s voice and then conclude about the live performance.

The play was written by Ayub-Khan-Din telling his story about his childhood. The play we watched was rewritten.

The play east is east is based on family, culture clash, identity clash, freedom of choice, imprisonment and arranged marriage. The play is set in Manchester and George Khan, owner of the local fish and chip shop is determined to bring his family up in the traditional manner. His seven children on the other hand have ideas of their own. One’s already left home to be a hairdresser, his one and only daughter prefers playing football to wearing a sari and now eighteen year old Saleem wants to study art, while twelve year old Sajit is about to be transformed from a shy gawky (clumsy) boy into a self-confident teenager.

With one disastrous arranged marriage in the family already, George plots to bring his next two sons into line by marrying them off to the daughters of Mr. Shah. When the Khan kids begin to oppose their father’s blundering attempts to sell them of and control their lives, his English wife Ella is forced to make a choice between her husband and the right of her children to have the choice of drawing their own path in the world.

The set plays an important role as it creates the background to a play. The floor walls and wings of the stage are all black except for a wide rectangular panoramic sky, high on the back wall perhaps four meters wide and one and a half deep. Showing before the play begins, blue sky and white f...

... middle of paper ...

.... Outdoors George wears an overcoat, relaxing at home he takes of his jacket revelling that his trousers is held up by elastic brasses. He often stands with his thumbs tucked in to his trousers waste band.

Archie Lal playing the character of George khan uses tone, Volume, Pitch and Clarity to show his emotions for example when his giving Tariq a warning he uses a furious and angry tone, high volume, medium pitch and with clarity (confident), for Tariq to understand his dad is serious and if he repeats it again he will get a beating.

After watching the play I gained a better understanding of how the play set’s the theme of the cultural differences and the difficulties of integration (alliance), Racism and the effects it has on immigrant, Family dynamics and how children repel against their parents' beliefs and traditions even as they grow and become independent.

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