Nuri is the beekeeper of Aleppo, or he was, until his hives were torched. Christy Lefteri’s bestselling 2019 novel traces the experiences of Nuri and his wife, Afra, as they struggle through Turkey and Greece to the UK, leaving behind lives shattered by the bombardments and brutalities of war. The storyline is a perfect fit for Nottingham Playhouse, which, as one of the UK’s theatres of sanctuary, is committed “to supporting refugees and people seeking asylum, by telling their stories on stage”. It also has particular resonance for Ruby Pugh, designer of this co-production (with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and UK Productions), since she, like Lefteri, worked as a volunteer with refugees in Athens.
Aspects of the staging are arresting. Pugh’s set, of wide skies and skeletal walls rising from mounds of furniture-engulfing sand, suggests both impermanence and fixity. The action shuttles through time and space, with Nuri (Alfred Clay) setting scenes through direct address to the audience. Shifting locations are evoked by light (Ben Ormerod) and sound (Tingying Dong; with music by Elaha Soroor); also by film projections from Ravi Deepres (including a breathtaking coup de theatre of a storm at sea).
The adaptation itself is less successful. Writers Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler struggle to transpose the novel’s first-person narrative into theatrical form; their episodic structure lacks dramatic tension. Consequently, the appalling experiences of Nuri and Afra (Roxy Faridany) feel as if they are being instrumentalised, used to convey information to enlighten the audience about the plight of refugees (in spite of strong performances, including from Joseph Long as Mustafa and Nadia Williams as Angeliki). The second half, concentrating on Nuri’s perspective, reduces other characters to shadows, a fault exaggerated, at times, by Miranda Cromwell’s direction; after Afra undergoes a traumatic event, for example, attention is rapidly switched from her to Nuri, so as to focus on his reaction. Overall, a well-intentioned but flawed production.
At Nottingham Playhouse until 25 February, and touring until 6 May
