Favour (NHB Modern Plays)

Leila is happy living at home with Noor, her loving but traditional grandmother. But when Aleena, her fiercely independent mother, returns home from prison determined to deliver a new world of fun and excitement, their calm lives are upended in a blur of nail varnish and sweet treats. Family secrets come tumbling into the light, and Leila finds the task of deciding on her future more difficult than she first thought. Ambreen Razia's play Favour is a touching and hopeful family drama about a working-class Muslim family, tackling duty, addiction and the challenge of pulling yourself back together after it all falls apart. It was a Bush Theatre and Clean Break co-production and premiered at the Bush, London, in 2022, directed by Róisín McBrinn and Sophie Dillon Moniram.

Ambreen Razia is an actress and writer from South London. Her plays include: Favour (Bush Theatre, London, 2022); POT (UK tour, 2018); and The Diary of a Hounslow Girl (Ovalhouse, London, 2015, and UK tour). She wrote and performed in Hounslow Diaries, a BBC television adaptation of The Diary of a Hounslow Girl, premiered on BBC Three in 2018.