Athol Fugard: About the Author

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South African playwright, director, and actor Athol Fugard was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; his mother was an Afrikaner but his father was of English descent, thus representing South Africa's two white communities. Fugard established a theater group in Port Elizabeth that includes people from all racial groups; his play Blood Knot was the first play ever performed in South Africa with a mixed-race cast. The play, which was also performed in London and New York City, is about two brothers who fall on opposite sides of the color line. How apartheid restricted the lives and spirits of individuals is the common theme of all Fugard's plays, including Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Boesman and Lena, The Island, and A Lesson from Aloes. "Master Harold"...and the Boys is based on an autobiographical incident that Fugard recounts in his memoirs, Notebooks 1960-1977 and Cousins: A Memoir.

Major works by Fugard

Blood Knot
Boesman and Lena
"Master Harold" and the Boys
Klaas and the Devil
The Cell
No-Good Friday
Nongogo
The Coat
People are Living There
A Lesson from Aloes
Sizwe Bansi
The Island
My Children!-My Africa!
My Life
Playland
Valley Song
The Captain´s Tiger
The Abbess

Fugard and the Web

To read an extensive biography of Fugard that examines his dramatic oeuvre, click on this link.

Would you like to know more about apartheid, the subject that Fugard treats in many of his plays? Visit this website, composed by students at Stanford University, to learn about the social consequences of this political phenomenon.

This link will take you to a Kennedy Center interview with Fugard in which he examines influences on his work and discusses his creative process.