The Boy at the Back of the Class - Review!

I went into this show not having read the book and having no prior knowledge of the story. I was immediately impressed as the show opened with “Story of my Life” by One Direction, if you know anything about me you know I am a hardcore One Direction fan. On a serious note, the acting in this show was incredible, I genuinely forgot I was watching adults, their portrayal of children was absolute perfection. In particular, I want to mention Evie Weldon who played Clarissa and Abdul-Malik Janneh who played Michael. These two performers shone as their characters and were hilarious to watch.

The cast absolutely nailed the typic british primary school classroom, which for an audience of predominantly kids still in this environment, was very important for everything to feel real and accurate to them. Of course in a show for children you have to sneak in a few jokes that will keep them engaged amongst such heavy topics, so a 67 joke was inevitable.

Sasha Desouza-Willock played Alexa and captured my heart with her character. She was such a joy to watch and made the entire audience feel an immediate connection with her.

Very important topics are covered in this show, and not necessarily in obvious ways. It indirectly teaches the kids about big issues and others opinions such as those regarding racism and grief. It so important that kids can be exposed to these topics to normalise them, as Alexa spoke about her grief I pictured a child in the audience feeling seen and represented by this character, which got me emotional. Tears genuinely welled up in my eyes when Ahmet got included, as well as the speech from the queen gave me goosebumps as it was such a special moment in the show.

Despite the story having a very important message behind it, I cant say that the story had me engaged. Act one was more of an introduction and nothing really happened in it, act two was better but still not great. It felt as if I was watching a long series which took ages to get to the main plot and story. This made me question whether the younger kids in the audience were enjoying and understanding, despite the message being an important one to deliver.

This show has so much potential and genuinely was great, but I do think that the storyline held it back a lot from that fifth star, I think it just needs to either get to the action quicker, or maybe shorten the length of the show in total.

However, the production itself was fantastic and I loved the use of the climbing frame as the backdrop on stage.

In my notebook I’ve written “I know its pretend but its heartbreaking to see someone treated like that knowing it happens in real life” and I don’t think anything could be more important, especially with what is going on in the world right now. If you would like to help refugees, you can write to the houses of parliament or to your local MP, which can be found at https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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