Soho Theatre
Salim, the groom at the titular wedding that begins Hassan Abdulrazzak's debut play, has disappointed friends by writing a novel about his bisexual bed-hopping adventures as a student in London. Why, they ask, didn't he choose a "juicier" political topic? Abdulrazzak, a London-based Iraqi, has not shirked this duty: the carnage that descends when celebratory rifle shots draw a US missile attack is only the bloodiest way in which his secular, well-educated characters are caught between Islam and the West. Regrettably few tales about the Gulf conflicts have come from Iraqi writers. As if to make up for this, Abdulrazzak addresses so many themes - occupation, insurrection, feminism and fundamentalism - that the play creaks under pressure. Any one of these themes deserves a two-hour play, but compressed into one evening, the production becomes incoherent and unengaging.