Athol fugard biography south africa

He found work on a ship, and travelled around the world for two years before returning home. He found a job as a court clerk and through this was able to witness the destruction on humans by the apartheid system. Athol Fugard started writing after a brief spell at acting. His first work in theatres was a piece called the The Rehearsal Room. Fugard wrote, acted, and directed this play which with its multiracial cast openly rejected segregation in South African theatres.

This led to most of his works being banned by the government. He soon became the country's premier playwright whose works, many which were banned, deal with contemporary South Africa and the psychological and physical barriers confronted in trying to overcome Apartheid. His plays are almost always set in South Africa and steeped in the politics of the day.

Athol fugard biography south africa

However, the politics never affect his insight into people. Like, Tennessee Williams, Fugard creates characters with strengths and weaknesses which make them unable to fit into what society requires. And like Williams the plays often have dominant women. His messages were discreet enough that his plays could be performed in South Africa, yet strong enough to have an important impact on the audience.

While his plays were not explicitly anti-apartheid, the sorrows that arise in them do so as a result of apartheid. He said of his writing, "The sense I have of myself is that of a 'regional' writer with the themes, textures, acts of celebrations, of defiance and outrage that go with the South African experience. These are the only things I have been able to write about.

In Fugard published three plays. Sizwe Bansi is Dead is about a photographer, Styles, who wants to take a picture of Sizwe Bansi, a black whose work permit has been cancelled. Bansi, however, decides to exchange his identity for that of a corpse he finds in a ditch. The Island is about two black political prisoners, John and Winston, who share a cell on Robben Island.

While they rehearse for a camp production of Sophocles' Antigone, they are struck with the contemporary relevance of the tragedy's message against tyranny. Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act depicts an affair between a white librarian and a black schoolteacher who are denounced to the police by their neighbors. He also published a novel, Isoti , based on notes taken on a voyage back from Europe in My Africa!

He published another novel, Tsotsi , as well as film scripts. Fugard often directed and acted in his plays, as he did with and productions of Valley Song. In the play, Fugard played the character of the black grandfather, Jonkers, and the autobiographical character of the white author. Fugard stipulated that in subsequent productions, the two characters must be played by the same actor.

Athol Fugard. Fugard: Aesthetic vision of Theatre In the preface to My Life , Athol Fugard articulates the two basic needs that clearly inform and shape his theatre. Back to top.