BREAKING taboos in true Bollywood-style, Snap Theatre Company present My Beautiful Launderette at the Beaufort Theatre, Ebbw Vale on Thursday, April 18 at 7.30pm.

Set within the Asian community, My Beautiful Launderette is an unusual story concerned with identity and entrepreneurial spirit in Blair's Britain.

Omar, a young and slightly confused Asian man, takes over the running of his wheeler-dealing uncle's dilapidated launderette with the intention of turning it into a glittering palace of commercial success.

When he employs childhood friend and ex-National Front member Johnny they become lovers as well as working partners.

However, complications soon ensue as the anger of Johnny's deserted gang begins to build and Omar is forced to face increasingly difficult family issues.

My Beautiful Launderette - written around 20 years ago by Hanif Kureishi, who also wrote Intimate which was recently released as a film - tackles the difficult issues of racism, sexuality, bigotry, violence and politics in Britain and is as relevant today as it was when first performed.

The screenplay has been adapted for the stage by Andy Graham and Roger Parsley and manages to be compassionate, humorous, hugely entertaining as well as undoubtedly controversial.

Snap tackle these issues head-on and the production includes original visual projection, music and choreography.

A spokesman for Snap, said: "In the 1960s theatre became truly revolutionary, there was nudity, expletives a-plenty and new boundaries were being shattered at every turn.

"Forty years on and theatre has settled into a rhythm, allowing taboo and current affairs to fall by the wayside in favour of what we had before.

"Rarely does a company attempt to challenge the status quo - that is exactly what Snap Theatre Company is looking to do."

My Beautiful Launderette is deemed unsuitable for young people under 15 years of age. Tickets are available from the Beaufort Theatre Box Office on (01495) 302112, priced £8 with £6.50 concessions.