The Boy At The Back Of The Class – The Lowry, Salford

Writer: Onjali Q Rauf

Adapter: Nick Ahad

Director: Monique Touko

Hot off its win last weekend of the Olivier for Best Family Show, The Boy At The Back Of The Class arrives at The Lowry. Onjali Q Rauf’s novel for the primary school age group was first published in 2018, winning both the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2019.

At a North East London primary school there’s an empty chair in Year 5 classroom. But one day that chair is no longer empty. Ahmet is a nine year old Syrian refugee who doesn’t speak English.  A group of four friends – Alexa, Jodie, Tom and Michael – want to help him and make friends with him using a combination of sign language and demonstration. However Ahmet’s arrival is not universally embraced with discrimination being shown by the class bully, some parents and even a teacher.

As Ahmet’s story is revealed, his friends decide that they have to help Ahmet be reunited with his parents before government threatened border closures happen.  Bypassing the Government the four write a letter to the Queen requesting her help. In the absence of an immediate reply Alexa and Tom plan to take another letter directly to Buckingham Palace. Their activities at the Palace get noticed by the news outlets and suddenly Ahmet’s story is out to the world, causing a huge surge in the search for his parents.

Nick Ahad’s adaptation of the novel brings the original to life in a loud way.  Mostly well written, with some nods to it’s adult audience members, this show is aimed fair and square at a primary age audience. Unfortunately the one thing it fails to do is give any subtlety to the secondary or passing characters. While Alexa and Ahmet are drawn in more detail, the other ‘children’ are closer to parody than reality. This lack of subtlety is a shame as children are more capable of understanding it than plays like this give them credit for.

Having said that, these niggles aside, it is an excellent play and the actors are generally good. Serkan Avlik’s Ahmet and Sasha Desouza-Willock’s Alexa take on the brunt of the storytelling with aplomb. The rest of the cast work hard not only in their principal roles but in a myriad of minor ones as well.

Lily Arnold’s set is skillfully evocative of school while versatile enough to be many other places as needed.  Director Monique Touko has created an ensemble who work well together and in the main has kept the show true to it’s meaning.  It is, at its heart, a play about acceptance and friendship, a premise it keeps front and centre throughout.  It is also an important message that needs to be out there, not just to children but to adults as well.  It’s just a bit of a shame that it’s not been done in a way that better reflects the majority of children rather than the more obvious tropes.

Runs until Saturday 18th April