Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire is a country in West Africa, it's estimated to have a 20,617,068 population and the official  language spoken is French (hence why Kojo, who is from the Ivory Coast, speaks French. They gained their independance from the French in August 1960, but have experienced a civil war that broke out in 2002. Around about a quarter of the population lives below the international poverty line which is $1.25 a day. A large proportion (espeically females) of adults are generally illitrate.

I was interested in the part of Roza, mainly because she's a small but important speaking character. Less facts and given circumstances are given about Roza straight away from Abi Morgan, than Ara, and so it gives a little more creative freedom to be able to develop her into my own character.

We did an exercise where we had to list all of the given circumstances that we got from Fugee. Given circumstances are points about the play that can not be changed, such as the fact Kojo is from the Ivory Coast or the fact that none of the children can understand each other.

We listed things such as;

• Ara is from Kabul
• Cheung is from Zhongsan
• Kojo's family are dead
• Ara likes X-Men
• ...etc.

This helped us look further into the play  and really think about the script we've been given and the characters and the situation along with it. It helped us all think about what parts we can and would, change to make our version of Fugee, unique and our own.

Kabul, Afghanistan.

Kabul, Ara's home city. Kabul is the capital and the largest city in Afghanistan, it's the 5th fastest growing city in the world and the 64th largest. The population is just around 4 million and it's over 3500 years old.

Kabul is described as a war-torn city and is often the scene for deadly bombings and explosions, that often more than not, injure and kill civilians.

There's an article about suicide bombings in Kabul published on the BBC on the 21/11/2012  here. 

Last lesson we did a thing called 'soundscaping' where everyone starts making a sound or saying a line of text to build up the atmosphere, we did this previously last term when we were looking at the riots and during  this lesson we used it to build the atmosphere of the market, in which some of the scenes are set and the childrens refugee/hostel in which some of the scenes are set.

I really like doing this as it really helps you understand what the setting of the scene is and how certain characters would react in these settings, it really helps getting into the mood of the scenes and the settings, it also helps me to understand how to build up atmosphere which i personally think is really useful.

We also did a 'Day in the life of' and in my case (and the rest of the girls in the class), it was a day in the life of Ara. We went through her typical day that may have been before or during Kojo was there. This helped me really think about her character and how she'd go through her daily life. I used elements and qualities that were already given from the script (such as her avid love for X-Men). It was really interesting to see what everyone else in the group also came up with for the characters and how everyone's was similar in some ways and different in others.

And lastly we did a 'role on the wall' for Ara, who we already knew was from Kabul in Afghanistan so we listed what we generally thought she'd look like (dark hair, darkish skin, dark eyes)

We also thought that Ara had quite a big heart and was very thoughtful so we wrote down many of those types of qualities.

Most of the quotes said about Ara were from Kojo or the other children as they're mainly the only ones to interact with her.

This helped us really think about Ara and explore her character and have the whole group agree on her personality.

We also did a 'role on the wall' for Cheung, listing all his thoughts, qualities and quotes about him, it was generally quite hard to find things said about him as most of the quotes said about a character were about Kojo but we did manage to find some.

As he's from China we gather that he'd be Asian, quite good looking, dark hair and the one who'd crack the jokes.

This again, allowed us to look into Cheung's character in greater detail.

This was the 'Role on a wall' for Kojo, we listed all of the things he may be feeling and thinking. On the outside we all listen what physical characteristics we thought Kojo would have, such as; 

• Dark skin
• Tall
• Looks older than his actual age (which is stated in the play)
• Black hair
• Brown eyes 
• etc...etc

We also had to write quotes that are spoken about Kojo, and Kojo being the main character there were quite a few. 

This helped us explore the character in greater detail than we already had. 

Fugee!

I've just finished reading Fugee and overall i'm really looking forward to working. The storyline is quite hard hitting and it really makes you think as it revolves around Kojo, who is in general, a helpless boy who's just lost his way. He was ripped from his family and in order to save himself, dropped in a completely foreign country and then after finally beginning to make friends and settle down, he's told that he's lying about his identity. Unlike regularly written plays, Fugee isn't chronological order, as it starts with the last scene of the story - I really like how Abi Green has done this because you get to watch the story completely unfold and at the beginning after the first scene you have to ask yourself;

"What on earth made a fourteen year old boy this mad to do something like that?"

I think it's effective as it straight away tells us the end of the play and so throughout of the rest of the play, all of the reasons and factors to why Kojo reacted like that unfold, unlike usual plays where the factors and the reasons build up and reach the plays climax at the end.

Fugee has many diverse characters, which you'd probably expect from a play about refugee children. The "main" characters are;

• Kojo - The character the story revolves around, he's a fourteen year old boy from Cote D'Ivoire and is completely on his own and new to the UK. The story opens just after he had stabbed a man on the street. 
• Ara - A fourteen year old girl from Kabul, Afghanistan. She's the first 'child' Kojo meet's at the children's refuge and the closest character to Kojo. 
• Cheung - A fourteen year old boy from Zhongshan, China. He's Kojo's friend and roomate. 
• Hassan - Another child at the children's refuge, he's from Iraq. 
• Roza - Another child at the children's refuge who befriends Kojo, she's also from Iraq. 

There are various other characters who show up in scenes, much like Kojo's family who appear more than one and then there are smaller characters that are only in the 'stabbing scene' that is however repeated quite a few times during the play from many different character's perspectives almost. 

Abi Green explores the theme communication quite a few times as it's set in a childrens refugee where all the children are from different back grounds meaning they all speak different languages. All the children, especially Kojo, has trouble communicating with the other children. However one of my favourite scenes is scene 10, in which Kojo, Ara, Hassan, Cheung and Roza are all sat around the table and they each talk about the different languages and make an attempt to teach each other English. I really like this scene as i think it show's that even if you don't speak the same language and the fact that you were complete strangers 10 minutes before, you can still communicate with one another and make friendships.

In another scene (scene four) in which Kojo has just entered the UK and failed to show a passport. The man tries to communicate with Kojo asking if he's on his own and where is his passport, but Kojo doesn't say a word as he can't understand what the man is trying to ask him.

In the various scenes that the children are talking to the refugee counsellor, they all need to use a translator - this causes miscommunication between Kojo and the social worker as the social worker believes Kojo is lying about his age, but however Kojo can't correct the social worker and tell them his story (which leads to Kojo being deemed as an adult).   

Week one

Fugee is written by Abi Morgan, it was written in 2007/8 and it revolves around the story of a young 14 year old boy Kojo and his experience as a refugee in Britain.