Press tickets for review

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Curve Theatre, Leicester until 8th June

Onjali Raúf’s lesson in morals and justice, adapted by Nick Ahad has potential but falls flat in being secure in its message and target audience.

The story of the award-winning novel of the same name about a refugee’s journey to the classroom and the reminder that kindness prevails all is a story that certainly deserves a spotlight. The message that everybody has a story and we all could learn something from the way children treat one another and how they mimic and replicate what they see is important and strong. However, there were some missed opportunities for me.

The show centres around a group of friends, who fondly call themselves the A team, meaning the Ahmet team. A Syrian boy (Farshid Rokey) who is unable to speak due to trauma, language barriers and the fact that some people just… don’t listen.

The story is very much told by Alexa (Sasha Desouza-Willock) and her friends who are eager to help Ahmet. The whole gang, but especially Desouza-Willock and Michael (Abdul-Malik Janneh) were incredible at bringing children to life as adults. The mannerisms and behaviours were spot on for 9 year olds and without a shadow of a doubt played excellent children.

My complaint, was there was so much of the story that could’ve been enacted rather than described. It’s a very dialogue heavy production, which for the younger scale of the target audience I feel would’ve been lost on them, evidenced by some children around us falling to sleep or getting fidgety.

I thought the opening scene to One Direction’s Story of my Life was a great example of the theatre techniques that were underused, there was a great parallel between the children playing with the blue sheet and the contrast to Act 2 of Ahmet wading through the blue sheet as the depths of the ocean. We also had a fantastically timed football match with an invisible ball. Signs that theatre skills could be used throughout the show rather than near constant dialogue.

I thought Act I was a great start to the show and had high hopes for the production though I unfortunately thought Act II fell short and turned gimmicky and tacky. I understand this is perhaps to appeal to a child audience, but it felt it lost its impact and the story that had been solidly set in the first act. I also noticed that one of Ahmet’s only solos talked about how he hates that people speak for him, yet it was applauded that his friends had then talked for him by going behind his back to fight his corner.

There is a very heavy reporting throughout the production which seemed to make the story feel laborious, my biggest problem with this is the lack of mics on the cast. Sitting in row F with minimal hearing difficulties, I was able to just about hear every bit of dialogue, except when background noise or low-level music was played and then I struggled. I don’t know how this would’ve differed further back, but I do think mics are a necessity or more intimate venues.

The set design by Lily Arnold is clever and will be instantly recognisable as the climbing frame from primary school days. It quickly transforms to Alexa’s living room, a bus stop, a supermarket, a convenience store and later Buckingham Palace. I thought it was clever how the lighting by Ryan Day creates a clock, and also lights up the edges to represent Buckingham Palace or the lighting up of the sketches.

The use of the Mr Irons being a bully struck a bit of a duff chord for me, and felt incredibly dating in the behaviours. Not doubting that this happens in some education settings, but it felt like it cheapened the story and wasn’t a normal occurrence in a school especially in this timeframe. The choice to keep the late queen as a silhouette voiced by Dame Vanessa Redgrave also felt it dated the story, rather than updating to the current king given the story is still very much relevant today.

I would have loved to see more depth to Ahmet’s story played out, and perhaps explored some parallels between Tom (Gordon Millar) and his voyage to the U.K. from the USA in comparison to Ahmet.

Overall, this is a show that has absolute bags of potential to be an unmissable show and a great spotlight on such a powerful story by Children’s Theatre Partnership and Rose Theatre.