Athol Fugard (b. 1932)

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LINKS

Conversation Online with South African Dramatist Athol Fugard
http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/092900/text/conversations.html

This broadcast of an in-depth interview with Fugard is maintained by Indiana University.

African Odyssey Interactive: Athol Fugard Chat Transcript
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/aoi/opps/chat/fugard.html

Some of the topics covered in this interview include Fugard's influences growing up in South Africa and his writing process.

Athol Fugard: Statements
http://www.iainfisher.com/fugard.html

This extensive fan site offers a biography, annotated bibliographies of works by and about Fugard, synopses and production photographs from many of his plays, and links to interviews, performance reviews, and other related online resources.

Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English: Athol Fugard
http://65.107.211.206/post/sa/fugard/bio1.html

Here you will find a biography and bibliography of works by and about Fugard, as well as contextual information on South African geography, history, politics, and literature. The site is part of the Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English project, an online resource created by a professor at Brown University.

BIOGRAPHY

Athol Fugard (b. 1932) has been a vociferous critic of apartheid for over fifty years. Born in a remote village in South Africa to a father who was an unabashed bigot and a mother whom Fugard describes as "decent and just," Fugard became keenly aware of the injustices of apartheid at a very early age. He studied philosophy on scholarship at the University of Cape Town before dropping out to be a seaman on a steamship in the Far East. His aspirations to become a great South African writer resulted in a novel, which he considered a failure and destroyed.

It was not until 1956, when he befriended a community of black writers and artists near Johannesburg, that Fugard reached a turning point in his work. Coming into contact with this group allowed him insight into the frustrations and obstacles that black artists came across daily.

Fugard moved to England briefly in 1959 to write, but soon returned to South Africa, the source of his creative inspiration. In Johannesburg, Fugard founded the city’s first multiracial theater, producing controversial plays such as The Blood Knot (1961) that challenged the injustice of the apartheid system. His attacks on apartheid brought him into conflict with the South African government, and as a result his passport was revoked for several years.

Boesman and Lena (1968) was Fugard’s next success, for which he won the 1971 Obie Award for distinguished foreign play. The Island, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, and Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act followed in 1972, exploring such racial issues as black prisoner rights, mandatory passbooks for blacks under the apartheid government, and interracial relationships.

Fugard presented A Lesson from Aloes in 1978, which won the 1980 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. The play develops around a character whose mixed-blood friend is sent away after a bus boycott. "MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the Boys (1982), which also highlights the pain and difficulty of interracial friendship in a racially divided society, premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre and then was taken to Broadway.

"MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the Boys earned critical acclaim in the United States, but also drew intense criticism from the South African government for its negative portrayal of the South African social structure. The government deemed the play illegal to distribute and import. However, a loophole in the law allowed Fugard to eventually produce the play in Johannesburg, as the mandate did not prohibit presentation of the play.

Fugard continues to write prolifically. The last twenty years have seen over a half-dozen of his plays produced to international audiences, including The Road to Mecca (1984), My Children! My Africa (1987), and most recently Sorrows and Rejoicing (2002). Fugard’s mastery of words and symbolism has captivated audiences worldwide as he has exposed the many layers of apartheid and its effect on society, his audiences, and himself.

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