The Funeral Director review: Poignant questions of faith deserve deeper exploration

There are strong wafts of the case involving the Belfast bakery and the cake to celebrate gay marriage in this year’s winner, the 10th, of the Papatango New Writing Prize.

Except this time playwright Iman Qureshi puts us in a Muslim funeral home in the Midlands, which refuses to serve a young man with a dead (Muslim) boyfriend. To further complicate matters, Ayesha (Aryana Ramkhalawon), who runs the funeral home with husband Zeyd (Maanuv Thiara), harbours long-term confusion over her own sexuality, exacerbated now by the reappearance of old school friend Janey (Jessica Clark).

These are impeccable topical issues, but the trouble is that I simply didn’t buy the whole set-up, which includes a lot of unlikely switching of formerly fiercely held positions.

Qureshi’s statement-heavy writing is stronger on argument than character, which doesn’t leave the actors a whole lot to work with. The fascinating tug of war at the drama’s core requires further fleshing out to have the heft it deserves: Ayesha and Zeyd are operating simultaneously within two conflicting codes, namely British law and the rules of their tight-knit Muslim community.

There’s too much eyes-narrowed-in-anguish acting in Hannah Hauer-King’s production, which clusters at one end of the traverse set. Ayesha’s poignant, powerful predicament requires space to be explored more fully.

Until Nov 24 (020 7407 0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk)