A thought-provoking and moving play focusing on family and heritage will be performed later this month.

Homing Birds, brought to life by theatre company Kali Theatre and created by award-winning writer Rukhsana Ahmad, will be making its way to the Queen's Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch.

Rukhsana has written many plays for stage and BBC Radio.

Metro called her last play River on Fire "a high-paced, provocative and absorbing piece of drama".

Director of Homing Birds and artistic director of Kali Theatre, Helena Bell said: "We are thrilled to be bringing the production to Hornchurch.

"It is Kali's first time at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch and we are looking forward to engaging with communities and audiences who are new to us.

"I think we can all identify with Homing Birds as one of our strongest human instincts is to find a shelter.

"To be somewhere we can relax and feel safe.

"This wonderful play is so universal that it really does speak to everyone about our need to 'home' and we're excited to bring it to Hornchurch."

Homing Birds is a play which asks if a place can ever be home without a connection to family and roots.

The play tells the story of a young Afghan refugee Saeed who desperately wants to reconnect with his roots and find his long-lost sister.

So he leaves his adoptive family in London and returns home to Kabul to work as a doctor, eager to contribute to rebuilding a new Afghanistan.

But here past and present collide and Saeed must face up to the reality of his changed world.

The cast includes Suzanne Ahmet who appeared in Peter Pan and Saint George and The Dragon at The National Theatre, Mona Khalili from Silk Moth Arcola, John O'Mahony from Intemperance at the New Vic Theatre and Jay Varsani from My Beautiful Laundrette at the Leicester Curve.

Homing Birds will be at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, on Friday, October 25 - Saturday, October 26, at 7.30pm.

Ticket prices start at £8.

For more information about the play, visit queens-theatre.co.uk