Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard (1932- )

African Writing in English

South African playwright, director, and actor, whose works often focus on South African politics. By portraying the conflict between characters from different backgrounds, Fugard's plays explore racism and repression—of apartheid (a system of racial segregation formerly adhered to in South Africa) in particular and of civilization in general—and celebrate the strength of the human spirit.

Born Harold Athol Lannigan Fugard in Middleburg, Fugard was educated at the University of Cape Town and began working in theater in the late 1950s. In 1959 his experimental theater group in Port Elizabeth produced his first play No Good Friday. International recognition came with the production of The Blood Knot (1961), which with Hello and Goodbye (1965) and Boesman and Lena (1969) formed a trilogy of plays focusing on family relationships in Port Elizabeth. Fugard cowrote Sizwe Bansi is Dead (1972) and The Island (1973) with actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona. His other plays include A Lesson from Aloes (1978), Master Harold ... and the Boys (1982), The Road to Mecca (1984), My Children, My Africa! (1988), Playland (1992), and Valley Song (1995).

With the ending of apartheid in the early 1990s, Fugard’s writing became less specifically political. The Captain’s Tiger (1999) is based on Fugard’s experience serving as a steamer ship captain’s assistant in the mid-1950s. Many of Fugard’s works have been produced in theaters worldwide and have received critical acclaim. Fugard wrote about his work in the theater in Notebooks 1960-1977 (1984); he wrote about his personal life in Cousins: A Memoir (1997).

Athol Fugard (1932- )

African Writing in English