We are pleased to feature a guest blog by playwright Alex Burger, who was the winner of a short story competition judged by Legend Press author Andrew Blackman as part of the 2010 London Fringe Festival. Alex will be giving us regular updates on the progress of the play over the coming months.
I’ve just landed back in Africa for work, the Republic of Congo this time. I carry with me the play I’ve been writing for the last six months. I do the reverse migration of the characters in my play, Efia and Charles. They moved from Africa to Europe in the 19th century, I move from Europe to Africa 150 years later.
Efia, Charles and I all live in the same neighbourhood in London, Bankside, but we are separated by more than a century. In their time this was a place of tenements and open sewers, today it is a neighbourhood of offices and glass condos. The Africa I work in is perhaps not far from the one they knew: villages with no power or running water, feuding chiefs, women growing cassava and harvesting forest greens to live on. We cross somewhere in the middle, in this mix of time and space.
Efia and Charles, are jarred by the world they discover in mid 19th century London. They enter a country they’ve dreamt of, to find themselves a part of the growing industrial revolution. I am also jarred as I enter Congo again. At customs people gather like they were at the horse races rather than moving through the regimented queues of the Heathrow IRIS machines. After about an hour in customs, making my way through multiple offices, paying bit of money here and there, I finally get a visa and permission to enter. These ways are becoming familiar to me; I have the benefit of time and travel.
I’m interested in immigration, in the dreams people have about one country or another. My play is ultimately about the illusions we hold about another continent, another race, another way of life. Efia and Charles came looking for their souls and a better life in England. Me, I return to Africa, a continent dear to me, where I found a piece of myself years ago and will always return. I think of them in air as I make the journey. Hopefully we meet somewhere in the middle.
Alex
If you haven't already seen it, there's a really interesting post on the concept of author branding on Danuta Kean's excellent blogsite. 
