I’d never heard of The Boy at the Back of the Class before I was asked to adapt it in 2023. My son had just turned one when Onjali Q Raúf’s novel came into my life. While I could have recited every Julia Donaldson book in my sleep at the time, this would have been a little advanced for his reading age.

Since then, I have of course read the book and its impact is extraordinary. It follows a young Syrian boy, Ahmet, who arrives in the UK without his parents. He joins a school and befriends a group of kids who hear that the government is going to “close the gates”. They don’t fully understand what it means other than that Ahmet’s parents, who must be looking for him, won’t be able to get into the country. So they decide, in a beautifully innocent way, to go to the most powerful person they can think of – the queen! – and ask for help to find Ahmet’s parents and keep the gates open. There is a wonderful simplicity to the whole thing.

I have a vivid memory of watching one of the first previews of my version of this story, sitting next to Onjali. About three minutes in, we looked at each other with our mouths wide open. We couldn’t believe what was happening. The audience, made up largely of school groups, were going nuts. The kids were cheering, screaming, gasping – we really hadn’t expected such a vocal response.

My work for theatre before this was crowd-pleasing, but also generally quite dark. With The Boy, I remember thinking at times: “I’ve spent two years writing this script, will you please quieten down and listen!” But this play has had a visceral impact on young audiences, who genuinely do boo the baddies and cheer the goodies.

Two years after its premiere at the Rose theatre, we are reviving it in the context of a time when a hotel housing asylum seekers has been set on fire and people are marching through towns in the UK. You can’t not tell the truth to a young audience, but you have to be sensitive about how you do it. So we talk about children dying on boats. We talk about the war. As a journalist, I’ve interviewed countless playwrights who write for young people and they always stress the importance of not patronising theatregoers. I didn’t realise how true that was until I saw this with an audience. They can cope with this stuff far more than we realise. Our production’s Olivier award nomination in the category of family show is testament to that truth.

I’ve written a lot about racism and growing up as a minority in the UK. But I’ve also always wanted to make people laugh with my work. This has proved to me that I can do both in the same play. What’s really cool about the revival is that my son is now five. It’s great that he can watch something that Daddy’s made. With my other plays, he might have to wait until he’s a teenager.

• The Boy at the Back of the Class is touring until 23 May