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Rokhsanah's following true calling

19/ 2/2008

ONE of the big theatrical hits in London last year was Rafta, Rafta ... at the National Theatre.

Directed by former Manchester Grammar School boy Nicholas Hytner, this comic tale of close-knit Asian family life in Bolton was adapted by the Salford-born author of East Is East, Ayub Khan-Din, from Bolton writer Bill Naughton's play All In Good Time (subsequently filmed as The Family Way).

So, quite apart from the fact that it really is very good indeed, you might well say it was about time the play made its way to these parts. Rafta, Rafta... is coming to the Lowry in Salford next month.

The leading role of Vina is played by Manchester-born actress and Contact Young Actors Company graduate Rokhsanah Ghawam-Shahidi (pictured). Vina is the beautiful young virgin wife who looks as if she might just be staying that way, as living in his parents' house so inhibits her new husband he finds himself unable to, erm. 'perform'.

Although she's now reached the dizzying heights of working with the National Theatre, Rokhsanah was not one of those kids who grew up always determined that they wanted to act on stage.

"I wanted to get involved in acting but I was still quite young and confused. I was more interested in wearing the right trainers and who was dating who, that kind of thing. So that dream got lost somewhere along the way," she admits.

"I found myself working in an office where you'd call people up and ask them 'have you had any accidents or injuries in the last few weeks?'. It was driving me a bit potty. I remember saying I just wanted to do anything else, as long as it was a bit creative.

"He said 'well, why don't you go to the Contact Theatre and check it out?' I walked in there and on the same day that I auditioned for CYAC, the Contact Young Actors Company, I got a job behind the bar. The next day, when I went back in, I got a job there as a host and the day after that I got accepted as part of CYAC."

CYAC

That was back in 2004 and Rohksana stayed at CYAC for six months before she was offered a job with Peskar Productions, as a drama workshop leader in Oldham and Bolton.

"That was really good fun, working with The Octagon in Bolton and the Coliseum in Oldham," she enthuses, "so it was especially exciting for me to come back to the Octagon a couple of years later, after I'd been taken on to play in the touring version of East Is East, which was written by Ayub Khan-Din, of course. It was dead good being able to play a snotty teenager on stage, walking around on stage in shoes that were too big for me," she laughs.

"So it's just kind of rolled on from taking that first step of saying that I wanted to do something outside of what I was doing and doing it for the right reasons, which was for the love of it and to get experience, rather than financial gain. I was really lucky the way things panned out."

Rokhsanah admits to being 'quite old-fashioned' in her approach to theatre and performance.

"A lot of the people I know, especially some of the ones from Contact, are very diverse and revolutionary in the way they work. They'll just start with a chair or something and then years later will roll on it and people will say 'wow, that's fantastic!'

"Believe me, I'm really not mocking or knocking that and it leads to some wonderful stuff. I went to see the Susan And Darren show there and it was one of the best, most refreshing pieces of theatre I'd seen in a long time.

"But the way I like to work is with a script, I like a director, three weeks to rehearse and get ready, and get going. That's as much excitement as I need.

"Rafta, Rafta... is a family drama and everyone can relate to that. It doesn't especially matter that this happens to be an Asian family, although that adds something unique to it. It doesn't try to be heavy or 'important'. As Ayub said `it's political because it's not political'."

Rafta, Rafta... is at The Lowry from Tuesday, February 19 until February 23