This is a remarkable piece of sensitive, in-depth storytelling, performed by an exquisite ensemble of multi-ethic actors on a rolling sea of special effects.

If you ever wanted to get yourself inside the head of a desperate asylum-seeker, this is the story do it. It is a play of eternal dilemmas. How to respond to gathering war clouds? To fight or flee?  How to make instant decisions about your priorities? And ultimately, how to hang on to your humanity?

At Heathrow immigration, a young, bearded man and his blind wife are interrogated by customs officials. They have come a very long way from a life that was once light and easy in Syria, to face the harsh bureaucracy of the British Boarder Control. But even this cataclysmic clash of cultures can have its moment of irony.

“Profession?”

“I’m a beekeeper”.

“And what does a beekeeper do, exactly?”

But Nuri, played commandingly by Alfred Clay, has had his three generations of bees scorched by the war and the trauma of leaving her homeland has rendered his wife, Afra, most sensitively portrayed by Roxy Faridany, blind.

Much of the play is a fairly faithful re-telling of the decimating journey, so eloquently described in Christy Lefteri’s book. Driven out by the bloody insurrection, the couple and their companions have to run the gauntlet of suspicion and aggression in each country they pass through. A Syrian passport might be 'flavour the month', but rapists don’t read passports and money-grabbing traffickers only get you to the border, not over it.

Inevitably, as we know from the news, they reach the shores of the Mediterranean. And here the play becomes utterly spectacular. Two of my audience companions had wondered beforehand how ‘they’ were going to do the impossible on stage. And the answer is with stupendously good projections.

The setting is sand; the sandy coloured walls of a modest Middle Eastern dwelling, overlooking rolling sand dunes. Which make perfect screens. The light show had been burbling away quietly for much of the play; a mosaic of wildflowers, hovering bees and watching eyes. (There is also an arresting before-and-after sequence of shots of the bombed-out city, which make for uncomfortable, newsreel viewing).

Then the refugees 'from so many countries' climb up onto a rickety bunk bed and a violent, thunderous sea foams rapidly across the stage and up and over the dunes to create a three-dimensional deluge that engulfs them all. It’s a moment of theatrical genius, the best use of video in a stage play I have ever seen.

I am delighted to report however that technical jiggery pokery in no way overshadows the supreme human artistry. We were treated to a masterclass of well-directed ensemble playing. Characters came to life out of the very sand.      

Alfred Clay and Roxy Faridany are excellent as the fleeing couple, conveying fear, panic and hopelessness so starkly. The scene in which Afra tries to explain that their torment is eroding Nuri’s love for her is counter-intuitively painful to watch. Surely, adversity should bind them all the more closely? It is fine writing, finely played.

Elham Mayoub is a chirpy comedy turn as the lively, witty child Mohammed. She also conveys the essence of their son, Sami, tragically killed in a careless moment, for which his parents cannot forgive themselves. It is yet another layer of anguish.

Aram Mardourian, Daphne Kouma, Faos Xenofos and Lily Demir work brilliantly together, portraying both caring companions and callous officials - creating rules and regulations off the cuff to make their plight even more difficult.

And Joseph Long is outstanding as the wily old beekeeper, Mustafa, who knows the way of the world and wears a Union Jack T-shirt for acceptance. It is he who realises how universal beekeeping is and uses his skills to begin to integrate himself into British Society. Where there are bees, there is hope.

But the overwhelming weight of this play is the sense of hopelessness the Syrian people are suffering. (And this is before the awful earthquake). Fortunately, the sheer beauty of the production saves the spirits of the audience.      

Four stars

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, on Tuesday 4 April. The production continues to show at the venue until Saturday 8 April. The Beekeeper of Aleppo then returns to the Midlands to show at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 May and The Rep, Birmingham, from Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 June.