When seeing The Boy at the Back of the Class there was a lot of us talking, walking, eating, watching, listening and reading. There were so many art forms involved such as musical theatre, dancing, physical theatre, costume design, lighting and staging. 

I had never seen a play before, I have only seen musicals and pantomimes. I thought it would have a big and detailed set, lots of actors but it was nothing like that, in a good way. There was a climbing frame that they used during the whole play. The reason why I like it was because the actors moved the climbing frame into different positions to make a class room, living room, a gate entrance and a playground. But when they were moving it, you didn’t know what it was until the actors started talking and saying where they were, sounds they were playing and what they were wearing. It was also magnetic so actors could put signs up. Then when the scene was changing the actors could quickly get them down without any mishap. 

I liked how I could use my imagination while watching the play. When watching a pantomime or a musical the whole part of the scene is in front of your eyes and you don’t need to use your imagination. But I think in this play part for the set was in your head, you had to imagine what that would look like. One person’s idea on what the scene looks like would be completely different to another person’s. That why I liked it so much. 

I wasn’t too keen on some of the acting. Such as the narrator was playing a 9-year-old, she was using a lot of facial expressions to seem a bit younger. I do get why she was doing that but I became a bit too much for me at some points. It was kind of taking my attention off of the play and my attention was on her facial expressions. 

I would recommend for anyone who is interested in knowing what refuges had to go through to escape war. It shows what the refuges had to go through to get to where they are today, even if that means the turn out wasn’t what that had planned. The play showed a lot of different emotions, even some we don’t think about when we talk about refuges.

I wouldn’t recommend to people who are very sensitive about war and refugees. Even though the play shows some of the subjects in a nice manner, it still can be really offensive to them.