Farrah Chaudhry’s new play Community packs a lot into 90 minutes. Exploring a whole host of themes including friendship, loyalty, responsibility, duty, loss and regret it also adds in dashes of laugh-out-loud humour.

A three-hander, the show takes us into the heart of a Balsall Heath community centre where Leyla spends her days supporting all and sundry. When her friend, well actually more of a casual acquaintance, Zoya is thrown out of her privileged home in Edgbaston and has nowhere to live she bumps into Leyla and invites herself to stay.

In doing so she discovers a whole side of the city she never knew existed, meets Syrian refugee Khalil and annoys the heck out of Leyla. But can they all learn something about themselves and each other from this unlikely alliance?

A graduate of the Rep’s Foundry artist development programme, Chaudhry has set her comedy drama very firmly in her home city. There are lots of in-jokes which people from elsewhere are less likely to get but the audience at The Rep’s Door space appreciated.

Sabrina Nabi brings bucketloads of irreverence to the pampered Zoya who has no idea how the other half lives. She has some great lines but in Nabi’s rush to get through them some of the dialogue is lost. While it’s the role of her character to toss out judgements ten to the dozen, just slowing down a fraction would make those comments much easier to hear.

Kerena Jagpal is the long-suffering Leyla but she too is a complex character – is she supporting the local community or is her role at the centre actually supporting her?

Sayyid Aki gives us a lovely Khalil. Here is a man who has left all behind and yet is so generous in his care and love, always looking for the best in people. He pours out his inner feelings in beautiful poetry which takes us into the heartache of a refugee torn from his family and home.

Directed by Alice Chambers, the show romps along without an interval and indeed, there is no obvious place for a pause to sit. Instead we are pulled along with the conflicting relationships and the problems they face.

There is some inevitability in the end but (no spoilers here) it also feels satisfying, moving each character along so they have discovered more about themselves, each other and the true meaning of community.

After The Rep, the show embarks on a two-week tour of community venues across the West Midlands.

Four stars

Community was reviewed by Diane Parkes at Birmingham Rep on 4 February, where it shows until Saturday 8 February.