‘I just thought it would be a secret I’d have to die with. And now – I think it’ll be what kills me.’
Life as the director of a Muslim funeral parlour isn’t always easy, but Ayesha has things pretty sorted. She and Zeyd share everything: a marriage, a business, a future.
Until Tom walks in to organise his boyfriend’s funeral. A snap moral decision, informed by the values of Ayesha’s community and faith, has profound consequences.
Forced to confront a secret she has hidden even from herself, Ayesha must decide who she is – no matter the cost.
Iman Qureshi’s play The Funeral Director is an incisive and heartfelt story of sexuality, gender and religion in twenty-first-century Britain. It won the 2018 Papatango New Writing Prize and premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in 2018.
‘Very clever… plenty of moral meat to sink your teeth into’
— Time Out
‘A bit of a cracker… Iman Qureshi’s play tackles, with grace and dignity, the tricky subject of Islamic attitudes to same-sex relationships. It’s a play that makes a humane point without lapsing into preachiness’
— Guardian
‘A sensitive and nuanced exploration of sexuality and the Islamic faith… elegantly drawn’
— The Stage
Winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize
