"People are not like bees - they don't think about the greater good", Mustafa tells his cousin Nuri, in a depressing reflection on humanity.
Based on Christy Lefteri's 2019 internationally bestselling novel and adapted for the stage by Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler, The Beekeeper of Aleppo tells the story of beekeeper Nuri and his wife Afra, as they embark on their perilous journey from war-torn Syria to the UK.
We travel with them on both their physical journey, through Istanbul and Athens, and their mental one.
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Alfred Clay, as Nuri, plays the part of bereaved father and husband tormented by his inability to make everything okay again for his wife Afra, convincingly yet without over-egging it.
Roxy Faridany as Afra, who loses a large part of her sight due to the trauma she has experienced, also acts her part well and there is a gentle and beautiful chemistry between the two.
The set is simple yet evocative, with the furniture partially engulfed in sand signalling both the all-consuming aftermath of war and burying of all that went before and the shifting sands of time. The scenes at sea are conveyed with clever lighting and create an appropriately overriding sense of threat.
The supporting cast are accomplished too, with both a heartfelt performance by Joseph Long as Nuri's cousin Mustafa, and a comically endearing one as the Moroccan 'geezer' sharing the bed and breakfast accommodation in England with the couple.
All the parts are played well, from Elham Mayoub' s Mohammed/Sami, the dead son of Nuri and Afra, to Aram Mardourian's corrupt, predatory people smuggler.
Nadia Williams' Angeliki meanwhile - a Greek name for a Somalian woman whose baby was snatched from her as she slept, is an all too believable portrait of a woman whose experiences have traumatised her so much she declares she is 'dead'.
Elaha Soroor's music is heart-piercingly beautiful yet, as with the performances, under-stated, as if not wanting to call undue attention to it or themselves.
Periodically throughout the play we hear the haunting sound of the bees, burned to death in their hives, the low drone also representing the sound of the brain shutting itself off from mental torture and the white noise of the humiliating questions asked of them by officials involved in their asylum cases: "Can you sing your national anthem without the words?"
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a production that more than tugs at the heartstrings yet also has an uplifting quality in its depiction of the incredible resilience of the human spirit. You can't fail to be moved by it.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo at The Lowry runs from Tuesday, April 18 to Saturday, April 22.
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