York Theatre Royal – until Saturday 5th March 2022
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
3***
The Bone Sparrow is a 2016 novel by Australian writer Zana Fraillon. It is a powerful story set in an Australian detention centre and is about friendship, cruelty, and resilience. S Shakthidharan has adapted this stage production for Pilot Theatre.
Subhi (Yaamin Chowdhury) is a member of the Rohingya people of Myanmar. He was the first child to be born in the permanent detention centre, after his Maa (Kiran L Dadlani) fled persecution, with his big sister Queenie (Siobhan Athwal). He has known nothing else, only guards and fences, in his short life. His lifelines are his drawings, his imagination, a belief that someday his world will be a different place and his rubber duck. Chowdhury brings Subhi to life with his innocence and ability to escape into his own world.
He meets a girl from outside his “cage”, Jimmie (Mary Roubos), a local, who has somehow found a hole in the fencing. They both relish their meetings, Jimmie bringing along her mother’s notebook full of tales for Subhi to read out loud to her, as she is unable to read them herself. All is not well inside the camp with tempers flaring from the unjust treatment the detainees are experiencing. Eli (Elmi Rashid Elmi) and Queenie are the main antagonists, fighting against the system, rioting and risking themselves in order to be heard.
Visually this piece is quite striking, the metal racking moving to depict the confines of the camp, Shubi’s drawings are depicted on a screen at the back of the stage, large heads incorporated in the story of Oto and Anka. Not too sure about the duck puppet, but it did create a much-needed chuckle and respite.
I found that I struggled with the storytelling, and at 2 hours and 50 minutes long, including interval, this was a test for my attention span. It needed to be tighter and half an hour shorter, especially as it is meant to be appealing to a teenage audience.
It is a tale of friendship and resilience, and it does have an important message that resonates, especially now in these trying times. With the atrocities that are happening in Ukraine, and all the displaced people that are fighting for survival. Surely there must be a better system in place globally, than what is effectively a prison? How can it be right for a human being to be locked up for so long, and to be treated so terribly, due to where they were born?