Player religionist eviscerated in Japanese drama (5)
I believe the answer is:
north
'player' is the definition.
(bridge players are called north, south etc)
'religionist eviscerated in japanese drama' is the wordplay.
'eviscerated' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the word is disembowelled of its inside letters).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'japanese drama' becomes 'noh' (type of drama in Japan).
'religionist' with its centre taken out is 'rt'.
'rt' inserted inside 'noh' is 'NORTH'.
(Other definitions for north that I've seen before include "Arctic" , "Towards top of map" , "Thorn (anag.)" , "Former statesman" , "British statesman" .)