
I have a very personal attachment to this story, which is associated both with pleasure and pain. The pleasure was watching an amazing adaptation of it as a play, pulled together by my daughter Joanna. She scripted and directed it with four actors – and it was really magical to see a story I’d written come to life like this. Whenever I say ‘a story I’d written’ I feel uncomfortable, because the more I write the more I feel that stories come to us, and we as writers/ actors or whatever just manifest them. What was wonderful to see how this same story, which was a gift from the great whatever, could be manifested so beautifully as a play – with all the nuances and subtleties offered by a live performance.
The pain came when we were building a life size kudu puppet for the play. Joanna and I made up in enthusiasm for what we lacked in expertise, and the final result was pretty spectacular. But we were working to deadline, and in a last minute dash to the hardware store for an essential part, I chose to run under a tree branch because it seemed quicker than running round it. A few seconds later I picked myself off the pavement with concussion and whiplash, from which I am still suffering… my head had failed to clear the branch. Ah well… all in the name of art…
For more on the Commonwealth competition, go to: www.commonwealthwriters.org