Staging & Dramatic Techniques
Why Staging Matters for the Exam
The Edexcel post-1914 play question tests your ability to analyse a play as a piece of drama — not just as a text to be read. This means you must write about how the play works in performance: how staging choices, theatrical techniques, and design elements create meaning and affect the audience. Discussing dramatic techniques shows that you understand Refugee Boy as a play, not just a story.
In Edexcel English Literature, you must analyse the play as theatre. Discussing staging, dramatic techniques, and performance choices demonstrates a higher level of understanding and can lift your response into the top mark bands.
Dual Narrative: Ethiopia and England
One of the most distinctive features of Sissay’s adaptation is its dual narrative structure. The play moves between two settings: England (Alem’s present-day experience) and Ethiopia (his past and his family’s story). This allows the audience to see both sides of Alem’s life simultaneously — the danger he has escaped and the new challenges he faces.
On stage, the dual narrative creates a powerful sense of juxtaposition. A scene of Alem at school in England might be followed immediately by a scene of violence in Ethiopia. This contrast forces the audience to hold two realities in mind at once and deepens their understanding of what Alem carries with him. He is not just a boy in a classroom — he is a boy who has witnessed things that his classmates cannot imagine.
Flashbacks are used to show Alem’s life before England: his family together, his mother Mrs Kelo, and the escalating violence that forced Mr Kelo’s decision. These scenes do more than provide backstory. They create an emotional baseline — the audience sees what Alem has lost, which makes his present isolation more painful. In performance, flashbacks might use different lighting (warmer tones for happy memories, harsher tones for violence), changes in music, or physical positioning to distinguish past from present.
Flashbacks also serve a structural purpose: they prevent the play from being purely linear. The non-chronological structure reflects Alem’s own experience — trauma does not follow a neat timeline. Memories intrude on the present, just as Alem’s past intrudes on his life in England.
Direct Address
Direct address is one of the most important techniques in Sissay’s adaptation. When Alem speaks directly to the audience, the fourth wall is broken and the relationship between performer and spectator changes. We are no longer watching Alem from a distance — he is speaking to us. This creates a sense of intimacy and complicity: we become witnesses to his experience, not just observers of a story.
Direct address is particularly powerful in the tribunal scene. When Alem addresses the audience during his testimony, we become the tribunal. We are asked to judge his case, to decide whether he deserves to stay. This technique transforms the audience from passive spectators into active participants in the play’s moral question. It is a hallmark of political theatre — the play does not just tell us about injustice, it makes us feel implicated in it.
Direct address transforms the audience from passive observers into active witnesses. When Alem speaks to us, we cannot remain detached — we are drawn into his world and forced to engage with the moral questions the play raises about justice, empathy, and responsibility.
Ensemble Playing
Ensemble playing is central to the staging of Refugee Boy. Rather than having a large cast with one actor per role, a small ensemble of actors takes on multiple parts. An actor who plays a sympathetic teacher in one scene might play an immigration official in the next. This approach has several effects. It emphasises the universality of the themes — the same human beings can be kind in one context and cold in another. It also keeps the focus on Alem, who remains the constant while the world around him shifts.
Ensemble work often involves the cast physically creating the setting: they might form the walls of the hotel room, the desks in a classroom, or the barriers of the tribunal. This physical storytelling is economical and powerful, stripping away realistic scenery to focus on the emotional truth of each scene.
Music plays a significant role in Sissay’s adaptation. Ethiopian and Eritrean musical traditions may be used to represent Alem’s heritage, while British sounds represent his new environment. The contrast between these soundscapes mirrors the dual narrative structure — Alem exists between two worlds, and the music makes the audience hear that duality. Live music or singing by the ensemble can also mark transitions between scenes, create atmosphere, and heighten emotional moments.
Sound design extends beyond music. The cold, formal sounds of the tribunal (echoing footsteps, official announcements) contrast with the warm, domestic sounds of the Fitzgeralds’ home. These sonic environments help the audience feel the difference between spaces where Alem is treated as a person and spaces where he is treated as a case.
Staging Choices and Their Effects
A thrust or in-the-round staging would suit Refugee Boy because it places the audience physically close to Alem, reinforcing the intimacy created by direct address. Lighting transitions — warm for the Fitzgeralds’ home, cold for the tribunal, harsh for the Ethiopian conflict scenes — help the audience navigate the dual narrative. A minimal set (perhaps just a few chairs and a suitcase) keeps the focus on the actors and the story, emphasising that Alem has been stripped of almost everything except himself.