Christy Lefteri's critically acclaimed novel 'The Beekeeper of Aleppo' has been turned into a play and is currently on stage at Salford's Lowry Theatre.
The thought-provoking novel has been powerfully executed for the theatre.
The play is all about a journey from Syria to England, mainly focusing on Nuri played by Alfred Clay and Afra played by Roxy Faridany.
It focuses on Syrian refugees and represents these characters’ traumatic experiences in order to get to England.
This theatre production was a real eye-opener and gives the audience an insight into people’s experiences and it is heart-breaking to see.
We feel the sense of identity being lost, family members being killed. These narratives are based on real life events and the actors performed excellently.
The visuals in this production were amazing. The drama was always performed on the same set with just sand and rocks, but they had different purposes throughout; for example, in one scene the actors used the sand to create a bunker and at other points the sand was used as a refugee camp.
Not only this, the video projections in this play were incredible. Whilst the acting was taking place on stage, there were moments where the drama took place behind the set, this was because it was being projected behind the sand.
A key scene which stood out was when the characters were travelling from a refugee camp to Athens in a boat on the sea - the sight of the sea was projected all around the stage and showed how harsh the waves were.
While this was happening, the actors used their body language to demonstrate how rough the sea was. The balance between the visuals and acting was at the right level and worked beautifully.
Overall, this play is educational and entertaining.
The whole journey is powerful, and you meet different characters on the way.
The play covered all the key themes, it even demonstrated how relationships were tested and showed how mental health can be destroyed.
Despite all of these traumatic themes, the play at some points incorporated humour.
It is one to catch if you can. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is at the Lowry until Saturday (22 April).
