"It follows a young Syrian boy, Ahmet, who arrives in the UK without his parents. He joins a school and befriends a group of kids who hear that the government is going to close the gates. They don't fully understand what it means other than that Ahmet's parents, who must be looking for him, won't be able to get into the country. So they decide, in a beautifully innocent way, to go to the most powerful person they can think of—the queen!—and ask for help to find Ahmet's parents and keep the gates open."
"About three minutes in, we looked at each other with our mouths wide open. We couldn't believe what was happening. The audience, made up largely of school groups, were going nuts. The kids were cheering, screaming, gasping—we really hadn't expected such a vocal response."
"This play has had a visceral impact on young audiences, who genuinely do boo the baddies and cheer the goodies. Two years after its premiere at the Rose theatre, we are reviving it in the context of a time when a hotel housing asylum seekers has been set on fire and people are marching through towns in the UK."
The Boy at the Back of the Class is a theatrical adaptation of Onjali Q Rauf's novel following a young Syrian boy named Ahmet who arrives in the UK without his parents and joins a school. When learning that the government plans to close the gates, preventing Ahmet's parents from entering the country, a group of his schoolmates decide to seek help from the most powerful person they can imagine: the Queen. The adaptation has generated extraordinary audience responses, particularly from school groups, with children cheering, screaming, and gasping throughout performances. The play combines crowd-pleasing entertainment with emotional depth, creating visceral impact on young viewers who actively engage with the narrative's moral dimensions.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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