The Boy at the Back of the Class asks adult audiences if they've done enough, and inspires our future generations to change our world for the better.

Nick Ahad — the writer of the stage adaptation of popular children's book The Boy At the Back of the Class – has written about the importance of not patronising children in media designed for them. He's right; in the current landscape that we live in, children deserve the decency from adults to not always sugarcoat life's complexities, and informing them through their media is a good place to start.

The play follows Alexa (Sasha Desouza-Willock), a nine-year-old girl doing regular nine-year-old girl things, aside from the fact that her dad has recently passed away, something she's grappling with as much as she grapples with how differently adults treat her now. Her and her friends decide to befriend new kid Ahmet (Serkan Avlik), a Syrian refugee who is picked on by students and teachers alike as a microcosm of real-world politics. After learning Ahmet's tragic story, the “A-Team” decide they must do something to help, and impact real change in the process.

In terms of content, this play could not be more important. The revival after its debut two years ago comes at a time when immigration is the biggest black hole of a political talking point, and parties live and die based on their responses to it. Children are shaped by the views of their parents, so it's only right that they are given opportunities to step outside of echo chambers and gain a new perspective - “walking in someone else's shoes”. 

The cast all generate a great deal of likeability in inhabiting the child characters, with excellent physical commitment and comedy. Any sense of the casts’ true age melts away very quickly and the dialogue rarely comes across entirely cringe (perhaps the single greatest achievement when it works in 6 7). The staging makes excellent use of the huge piece of gym equipment found in every primary school, particularly impressive when schools seem entirely incapable of it themselves (once in seven years). 

Now, I was frustrated by a play that otherwise collates politically for embracing the narrative solution of demanding change from the Queen, as a figurehead of the tiny percent of people who hold most wealth in our country, and hoping that she can do something about it. Her portrayal as the classic loveable and digestible representative of the royal family is a strange addition point blank, worse when we've had a king for four years. This might seem like me just picking holes in a play for children (and it is) but I don't like the idea that the way to inspire change in young audiences is to respect the people in positions of authority that put these oppressive structures in the first place.

I cannot spend so much time in this place of vague disappointment though, because otherwise this is an extremely important piece of theatre for both children and adults, one that makes older audiences wonder if they've done enough, and puts our future generations on the trajectory to change our world for the better.

The Boy at the Back of the Class plays at Mayflower Studios until Saturday 14th March.