LISTENING TO THE PAST
Stories that explore the physical and psychological landscape of history.
Karien Polley weaves meaningful and poetic radio dramas that transport her audience back in time.
Giving a glimpse of other lives, experiences, and circumstances that are both cathartic and haunting. She’s captivated listeners on South African stations (Radio Sonder Grense, Fine Music Radio, Bush Radio) and is now also producing her own dramas, and mentoring other budding writers.
When she isn’t telling important stories about the past, Karien is collecting and saving impressions, snippets of stories she hears, researching, percolating, and then composing deeply moving human narratives.
Out of the Shadow: The Peace Trees of Hiroshima
How do humans rebuild their livers after a nuclear attack? How do they deal with their ongoing losses? Out of the Shadow tells the story of how in the midst of great loss, there are opportunities to live, love, and heal.
Upcoming Workshops
Learn how to develop an audio drama.
1
Day immersion
9.30am-3pm
Light lunch served
More audio dramas
Sarah
It is a cold, windy evening in the Eastern Cape. Sarah Baartman and “History” are conversing around a fire in the open veld. “History” wants to rewrite Sarah’s life story.
Van die Vlees
It is the year 1706 at the Cape of Good Hope or The Cape of Storms as it is known. Rosiena of Madagascar a young slave is forced into a relationship Frans, the husband of her owner.
Littekens
During the height of the apartheid era, a group of student friends with different political convictions have to decide where their loyalty lie, with far reaching consequences.
