Rejoice Burning is based on real lives, people I knew and know, but the middle owes a lot to Uys Krige and the end to Robert Frost. It's theme, the weird separation of the worlds of people who live so closely together (African and European, settler and native) is an essential South African theme. It is, perhaps, the crucial post colonial theme world wide. Although written for radio, the play is stageable. The arena would be divided into areas suggesting Rejoice's room, the White's house and Harmony's room. All actors would remain on stage all the time. Instructions for sound effects would become signals for changes of scene and light state. A coffin and fire would be combined to manifest the title image.