Athol Fugard

Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard (born 11 June 1932) is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English. He is best known for his political plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy Award -winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Athol Fugard Athol Fugard is a South African playwright and occasional director and actor who actively critized the Apartheid system through his work. He worked with actors such as Zakes Mokae and John Kani. More from this author.

Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, and director, who often writes on the subject of South African apartheid. His works are often critical investigations of South African history, and he has been called South Africa's greatest playwright. His plays include The Cell, The Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa!, Sorrows and Rejoicings, The Shadow and the Hummingbird, and others. He is also known for writing the novel, Tsotsi, which was then turned into an Academy-Award winning film.

After dropping out of university, Fugard spent some time working on a steamer ship in North Africa, before moving to Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court. There he began to become interested in the fallout of South African apartheid, and the injustices still built into the system. He began writing plays, many of which were critical of South African politics, and had them produced and published outside the country to avoid censorship. In 1958, he organized a multiracial theater with which he staged his plays. He later formed the Serpent Players.

John Kani

Athol Fugard Plays

Bonisile John Kani is a South African actor, director, and writer who collaborated with Fugard to create The Island. His first collaboration with Fugard was on the anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi is Dead. He won a Tony Award for his work on the play, which transferred to Broadway in 1975.

As a playwright, his plays include Nothing but the Truth, which looks at the conflict between South African Blacks who stayed to fight apartheid and those who left. His collaborations with Fugard and Winston Ntshona include Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act.

Athol Fugard Works

As an actor, Kani has worked on numerous plays, television shows, and films, including Miss Julie(a television film), Othello (a television film), Wallander, The Ghost and the Darkness, Endgame, Coriolanus, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, and The Lion King.

Winston Ntshona

Winston Ntshona was Fugard's other collaborator on The Island. He also won a Tony, along with John Kani, for his work on Sizwe Banzi is Dead. As an actor he appeared in the filmsThe Wild Geese, Marigolds in August, Gandhi, A Dry White Season, The Power of One, Tarzan and the Lost City, and Blood Diamond. He died in 2018.

Athol Fugard Theatre