Taking award-winning show home is 'magic' - writer

The writer of an Olivier-award winning show about a Syrian child refugee has said he is "so excited" to bring it to the Alhambra theatre in his home city of Bradford.

His adaptation of the novel The Boy at the Back of the Class won Best Family Show at the Olivier Awards last month, and was writer Nick Ahad's first theatre show.

Ahad said when he found out the show was finishing its second UK tour next week at the Alhambra – where he said his own theatre journey began – he was "in bits".

"I'm going to get to see my show on that stage, there aren't really any words, other than it feels like magic," he said.

Ahad, who could not attend the awards ceremony, said it was "mind blowing" to win the Olivier.

The show beat three other nominees - The Boy with Wings, The Firework-Maker's Daughter and The Three Little Pigs – to take home the award, which has previously been won by The Railway Children.

Ahad, who presents on BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio 4's Front Row, said it was an "absolutely beautiful story" and he felt he was the right person to tell it.

"It's about a little boy. He comes from Syria. He lands up in a school in the UK and he has this group of friends that try to help him find his parents," he explained.

"And for me, it was just about that story of everyone needs a home. It doesn't matter where you come from, everyone wants somewhere to belong, and I understand that.

"As someone who is mixed race, I'm a Yorkshireman but I look like this, I understand that journey of not quite knowing where you belong and so that's why the story really spoke to me."

The novel was written by Onjali Q. Raúf and directed by Monique Touko and is produced by Children's Theatre Partnership and Rose Theatre.

The show runs at the Alhambra until Saturday.

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