The play that changed my life: “There were cheers and screams and gasps at our story – we couldn’t believe it!” | stage

II had never heard of The Boy at the Back of the Class before I was asked to edit it in 2023. My son had just turned one when Unjali Q Rauf’s novel came into my life. While I could read every Julia Donaldson book in my sleep at the time, this He would have been a little advanced for his age in reading.

Since then, of course, I have read the book and its impact has been extraordinary. The film’s events revolve around a young Syrian boy, Ahmed, who arrives in the United Kingdom without his parents. He enrolls in a school and befriends a group of children who have heard that the government is going to “close the gates.” They don’t quite understand what that means other than that Ahmed’s parents, who must be looking for him, won’t be able to enter the country. So they decide, in an innocent and sweet way, to go to the most powerful person they can think of – the Queen! -And ask for help to find Ahmed’s parents and keep the gates open. There is a wonderful simplicity to everything.

I have a vivid memory of watching one of the first previews of my version of this story, sitting next to Unjali. After about three minutes, we looked at each other with our mouths wide open. We couldn’t believe what was happening. The audience, which was largely made up of school groups, was going crazy. The kids were cheering, screaming and gasping – we really didn’t expect such an audio response.

My work in theater before that was crowd-pleasing, but also generally dark. With The Boy, I remember sometimes thinking: “I’ve spent two years writing this script, would you please just calm down and listen!” But this play has had a profound effect on young audiences, who boo the bad guys and cheer on the good guys.

Two years after its premiere at the Rose Theatre, we revive it in the context of the time when a hotel housing asylum seekers was set on fire and people were marching through towns in the UK. You can’t not tell the truth to a young audience, but you have to be sensitive about how you do it. So we talk about children dying on boats. We’re talking about war. As a journalist, I’ve interviewed countless playwrights who write for young people, and they always stress the importance of not patronizing theatergoers. I didn’t realize how true this was until I saw this with an audience. They can handle these things a lot more than we realize. The nomination of our production for an Olivier Award in the Family Presentation category is a testament to this fact.

I have written extensively about racism and growing up as a minority in the UK. But I also always wanted to make people laugh with my work. This proved to me that I could do both on the same play. What’s really great about this revival is that my son is now five years old. It’s great that he can see something his dad made. With my other plays, he might have to wait until he’s a teenager.