My Beautiful Laundrette to return to Leicester Curve ahead of UK tour

My Beautiful Laundrette is to return to Leicester Curve as part of a UK tour.

Curve’s production of Hanif Kureishi’s piece will open in Leicester from 17 – 24 February 2024.

It will then tour as part of National Theatre Network to venues including Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch (28 February – 9 March 2024) and The Lowry, Salford (19 – 23 March 2024), with further dates to be announced.

Set in London during the Thatcher years, My Beautiful Laundrette tells the story of a young British Pakistani, Omar, who transforms his uncle’s run-down laundrette into a thriving business. After being confronted by a racist gang, Omar develops a relationship with school-friend Johnny, a fascist skinhead.

Against a backdrop of racial division, nationalism, rising inflation, recession and political turmoil, love blossoms between the two boys, as they set to work renovating the South London laundrette.

My Beautiful Laundrette is based on Kureishi’s ground-breaking 1985 Oscar-nominated film of the same name and the production features original music composed by the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

The tour is directed by Nicole Behan, based on the 2019 production by Nikolai Foster.

Curve’s Chief Executive Chris Stafford and Artistic Director Nikolai Foster said: “We are thrilled to be presenting Hanif Kureshi’s astonishing adaptation of his Oscar-nominated film My Beautiful Laundrette. After the success of our 2019 production, we are thrilled to be revisiting the play as part of the National Theatres’ Nation Partnership programme, which promotes great plays and new audiences at theatres across the country. Hanif surfs a multitude of strikingly relevant issues in his 1985 masterpiece – from the journey of the immigrant, sexuality, English working-class society, women’s roles in society and the results of Thatcher’s policies, which we all still feel the effects of today. Kureishi does all of this with bucketloads of wit, compassion and his trademark uncompromising sense of mischief.”

For more information and tickets, visit visit www.curveonline.co.uk.