We don’t know whether ‘Aziz H’ listened to radio plays as he grew up in Yemen. In fact we don’t even know his real name, nor what he looks like. He was unable to get the visa that would have allowed him to come to London to receive his prize as one of the winners in this year’s BBC World Service/British Council International Playwriting Competition. His drama, A Broken Heart in a Warzone, is the first he’s written for radio but he seems to know instinctively how to create character through voice alone, atmosphere through simple cues, drama out of juxtaposing situations.
‘As someone who isn’t a writer,’ he told the competition organisers, ‘I doubted making it to the shortlist.’ That’s what makes this writing award so integral to the World Service and what it stands for. It gives anyone who can write in English the chance to have their work recognised, their voice heard (the winning plays are broadcast around the world to a potential audience of up to 79 million listeners). All the competing writers have to do is come up with a script of approximately 8,000–10,000 words (53 minutes of air time max) and send it off to London via the internet. There’s nothing to pay to enter. The only writers not allowed to take part are those who live in the UK.
The competition, held every two years, is a massive judging enterprise with 1,436 entries this year from Rwanda to Romania, Belgium to Botswana. I make no apology for mentioning it each time it comes around as the plays it produces have an edge, a quality that is usually quite raw, because the writers are often first-timers, yet always deeply felt and original.
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