Ayub Khan Din – författare

This collection of plays written and introduced by actor-turned-writer Ayub Khan Din charts the development of a writer able to turn the tumultuous experience of life in modern Britain into satisfying, humane and often richly comic drama.Whether drawing on his own childhood, growing up in an Anglo-Pakistani family in Salford, or on E.R. Braithwaite's account of racial tensions in the East End in To Sir, With Love, he depicts the struggles of individuals to come to terms with their conflicting cultural legacies – and he does so with unerring warmth and compassion.East is East (1996) is an irresistible comedy set in multiracial Salford in 1970, where the Khan children are buffeted this way and that by their Pakistani father’s insistence on tradition, their English mother’s laissez-faire and their own wish to be citizens of the modern world. The film adaptation that followed, with a screenplay by the author, became one of the most successful British films ever made. The version included here is the revised text first performed at the Trafalgar Studios in 2014.The short, elegiac play, Notes on Falling Leaves (2004), is an emotionally tender depiction of a young man as he loses his mother to dementia, 'overwhelming in its emotional impact' (Telegraph).In All the Way Home (2011), a quarrelsome group of siblings gathers at the family home under the shadow of impending loss. Amidst the cut and thrust of spiky Salford banter, long-harboured resentments rise to the surface and family bonds unravel and unwind.To Sir, With Love (2013), based on E.R. Braithwaite's autobiographical novel, is the uplifting story of a talented, idealistic young teacher discovering the reality of life as a black man in Britain after the Second World War as he struggles to find a way to connect with his students at a tough but progressive East End school.

The play that gave birth to the smash-hit film - a wonderful comedy about growing up in multiracial Salford.The six Khan children, entangled in arranged marriages and bell-bottoms, are trying to find their way growing up in 1970s Salford. They are all caught between their Pakistani father's insistence on Asian traditions, their English mother's laissez-faire attitude, and their own wish to become citizens of the modern world.Ayub Khan Din's play East is East was first performed at Birmingham Repertory Studio Theatre in October 1996 in a co-production by Tamasha Theatre Company, the Royal Court Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Company, before transferring to the Royal Court, London. It was later adapted into a feature film, with a screenplay by the author, that became one of the most successful British films ever made.East is East won the John Whiting Award in 1996 and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1998.

A serious comedy from the author of East is East, about the dying breed of Anglo-Indians living in Calcutta in 1985.They are a vividly memorable gang of eccentrics and exotics who are attempting to come to terms with their pasts and their fears for the future. Their world is filled with Violet's hilarious obsession with all things British, Elliot's questionable dress sense, Daphne's weakness for French records and the confrontational outbursts of the slightly mad Muriel who would do anything to defend their territory – because just outside the jasmine-coloured walls of Dum Dum, the dark reality of hatred and bigotry is creeping closer and closer...Ayub Khan Din's play Last Dance at Dum Dum was first performed in July 1999 at the New Ambassadors Theatre in the West End in a production by the Royal Court Theatre.

A hugely warm-hearted, comic tale of close-knit Indian family life in England, by the author of East is East.The wedding feast is over and the bridegroom's father is dancing the bhangra, but the groom himself is curiously reluctant to make his way to the bedroom...In fact he's so woefully inhibited by the proximity of his parents and his brother's childish pranks that his beautiful virgin bride remains just that. Six weeks later, the whole family start to panic. But 'Rafta, rafta...' or 'All in good time'!Based on Bill Naughton's 1963 play All in Good Time, Ayub Khan Din's play Rafta, Rafta... was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in the Lyttelton auditorium in April 2007, directed by Nicholas Hytner. It won Best New Comedy at the 2008 Olivier Awards.Rafta, Rafta... was later adapted for the big screen with the title All in Good Time.