CHRISTY Lefteri’s bestselling book The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a story of our times – a chronicle of the lives of a handful of Syrian and other refugees seeking asylum in the famously civilised and welcoming United Kingdom. Now adapted for the stage by Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler, it is in Bath until Easter Saturday.
Spangler is best known for The Kite Runner, and brings a similar atmosphere and humanity to this play. It tells how Nuri, who runs a successful bee and honey business with his cousin Mustafa in old town Aleppo, takes his newly-blinded wife Afra from their war-torn Syrian home to follow Mustafa to a new life in England. It brings the reality of the desperation, determination and dejection that must follow the journeys of so many of those forced to flee their countries facing the dangers, complexities and confusions of their refugee status.
We are almost numbed by oft-repeated stories about illegal immigrants on tiny boats crossing the Channel, asylum-seekers’ hostels, protests, red tape, inadequate housing, local hysteria and a seemingly hopeless search for a solution that can both protect fugitives and satisfy the needs and rights of lifelong residents.
On a simple multi-purpose set, with effective backdrops, this play paints a vivid picture of the perplexing horrors of the situation in which so many must find themselves. My companion suggests it should be compulsory viewing for Reform recruits.
The nine-strong company is led by Adam Sina and Farah Saffari, with Joseph Long, Aram Mardourian, Alia Lahlou, Princess Khumalo, Dona Atallah, Moshen Gharrari and Helena Massoud playing other refugees, doctors, immigration officers, people-smugglers, distraught widows, lost children, crooks and useless bureaucrats. All their stories unfold in various countries along the journey, until a denouement that will probably surprise you.
The important thing about Christy Lefteri’s story is that it is about the world we now inhabit, a world whose familiar order is smashed, in which our family, friends and neighbours are increasingly briefed by targeted misinformation. It calls for a humanitarian (in the true meaning of the word) approach to a situation which we cannot stop or even alter. It asks us to realise that we are all part of the same human race, as needful and deserving of compassion and understanding. It sounds like an Easter message, but, as we used to say in what was known as The Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
GP-W