Sadly Athol Fugard has died aged 92. He passed away in his Stellenbosch home near Cape Town of cardiac arrest after a long illness.
Some tributes:
"Fugard defined the essence of what he called "pure theater" as nothing more "than the actor and the stage, the actor in space and silence." As an artist he resisted labels, but he conceded that if his work is to be categorized "then it must be as 'actors' theatre.' Humanity was always at the core of Fugard's art" (Mark Kennedy and Gerald Imray, LA Times, 10 March 2025, click here
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-03-10/athol-fugard-south-african-theater-artist-whose-works-confronted-apartheid-dies-at-92).
"Fugard brought critical, wrenching portrayals of South African society under apartheid to international stages, including Broadway, helping to generate the wave of worldwide criticism that eventually led to the end of that policy in the country, in the process gaining wider access for South African dramaturgy outside that nation" (Carmel Dagan, Variety, 10 March 2025, click here
https://variety.com/2025/film/global/athol-fugard-dead-playwright-1236333147/).
"His longtime friend and collaborator John Kani mourned: 'I am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear friend Athol Fugard. May his soul rest in eternal peace'" (iAfrica, 9 March 2025, click here
https://iafrica.com/athol-fugard-iconic-south-african-playwright-dies-at-92/).
"Now he is dead, and a writer of true integrity has gone. He loved the actor who had played Miss Helen in Mecca, the great Yvonne Bryceland – his muse. He loved women; he wrote about the feral stoicism and optimism of the female animal with a warmth quite unusual in a writer – maybe excepting Ibsen. He understood fatalism, and loneliness, and had the ear of a poet for ordinary folk" (Janet Suzman, The Guardian, 9 Mar 2025, click here).
"The South African government confirmed Fugard's death and said the country 'has lost one of its greatest literary and theatrical icons, whose work shaped the cultural and social landscape of our nation'" (Mark Kennedy and Gerald Imray, The Independent, 10 March 2025, click here
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/south-africa-cape-town-johannesburg-san-francisco-chronicle-black-b2712032.html).
For more on Athol Fugard and his plays click here
https://iainfisher.com/fugard/