It was written in 1948 and is loosely based on a painting by William Dobell, The Dead Landlord.
[1] The play is set in a filthy rooming house in the depressing context of post-war London, and has as its protagonist a young poet whose attempted seduction by the aptly named Mrs Lusty, his landlady, drives the tragicomic drama.
The 'ham funeral' of the title is the feast to mourn the sudden death of Mrs Lusty's husband, held in Act 2.
"[7] Geoffrey Dutton is quoted summing up the immediate impact of the play's production, "Perhaps there was among the audience the thought that a reactionary Establishment was being beaten on its own ground, that the evening was going to be a triumph of the imagination over mediocrity.
"[8] A State Theatre Company of South Australia production of The Ham Funeral played to mixed reviews as part of the Adelaide Festival 2012, described by Paul Grabowsky as, "something which the Adelaide festival, finally, could see as unfinished business, finished.