Athol Fugard News
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Sizwe Bansi is Dead in USA. My Children! My Africa in Cape Town, South Afruica and NY, USA. Fugard Festival in LA, USA. Blood Knot in USA.
Blood Knot reading in Atlanta, USA
Theatrical Outfit and True Colors Theatre Company present a reading of Blood Knot in Atlanta, USA in Spring 2027. The performers are Tom Key and Kenny Leon.
For the theatre website click
here
My Children My Africa! in NY, USA
"A tragedy set in 1985 South Africa, focusing on the clash between
non-violent, educational reform and violent revolution during apartheid.
For the theatre website click
here
Sizwe Banzi is Dead in New Brunswick, USA
The director is Ricardo Khan. "One man’s death becomes another’s salvation in this indictment of South Africa’s Apartheid system which lasted through the 1990s. Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, was written by South African playwright Athol Fugard in collaboration with John Kani and Winston Ntshona. Both actors/playwrights, Kani and Ntshona received Tony’s in 1975, for their starring roles in the play’s Broadway production. The Crossroads production of Sizwe is in collaboration with John Kani, the last remaining member of the writing team".
For the theatre website click
here
My Children My Africa! in Cape Town, South Africa
For the theatre website click
here
Fugard Festival in Los Angeles, USA
The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles present a Fugard Festival from 15
July- 6 September 2026.
The festival includes Sizwe Bansi is Dead as well as staged reading of
Exits and Entrances, The Island, Statements After an Arrest Under the
Immorality Act and The Road to Mecca.
Sizwe Bansi is Dead is directed by Simon Levy.
For the theatre website click
here
Blood Knot thesis Encyclopedia Britannica Web's Best Site
Master Harold and the Boys in Albany, NY, USA
The director is Jean-Remy Monnay.
"A white teen who has grown up in the affectionate company of
the two Black waiters who work in his mother’s tearoom in Port Elizabeth
learns that his alcoholic father is on his way home from the hospital.
This unwelcome news and the ensuing rage unwittingly trigger his
inevitable passage into the culture of hatred fostered by apartheid".
For the theatre website click
here
My Children! My Africa! in USA
The director is Robert Parsons and the cast are Ansley Valentine
(Mr. M), Isaac Addai (Thami Mbikwana), Emma Lenza (Isabel Dyson)
"My Children! My Africa! is Fugard’s masterpiece about South
Africa circa 1985. In the last gasp of Apartheid, violent protest and
resistance on all sides is at its height. A gentle Black high school
teacher in a rural township invites a White high school girl from the town
nearby to form a radical, cross-racial competitive debate team with his
best pupil. The racial, economic, and identity conversation that blossoms
among the three is cut off as the revolutionary wave sweeps them all away.
Your heart will ache at the beauty of the language and the storytelling
from South Africa’s master-writer, Fugard".
For the theatre website click
here
Kani-Ntshona-Fugard (KNF) Performing Arts Precinct
"The stage lights of the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex (MBTC)
shone bright on Monday evening as the 10th annual Iphulo Drama Festival
opened in grand style, but the spotlight was not only on the performers-
it was also on the ambitious vision for the future of the arts in the Bay.
This is reported by Simtembile Mgidi, The Herald, 10 Feb 2026,
click
here.
Master Harold and the Boys with
John Kani in Los Angeles, USA
The co-directors are Emily Mann and Tarell Alvin McCraney, scenic
designer Beowulf Boritt is and costumes are by Susan Hillferty.
"Step into the charged atmosphere of a 1950s South African
tea shop in Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”…and the Boys, a gripping,
deeply personal drama that unflinchingly confronts the realities of race,
power, and betrayal. On a rainy afternoon, Hally, a white teenager, passes
the time with Sam and Willie, two Black waiters who have helped raise him
by filling the gaps of a broken home with warmth, wisdom, and laughter.
But as the day unfolds, playful memories give way to painful truths, and a
single moment threatens to shatter the fragile bond between them forever".
For the theatre website click
here
Presley
Chweneyagae passes away
The Train Driver in London, UK
CANCELLED
"December 2000, Cape Flats, South Africa. A woman steps in
front of a train with her baby on the railway tracks between Philippi and
Nyanga.
For the theatre website click
here
Master Harold and the Boys in Cape Town, South Africa
For the theatre website click
here Master Harold and the Boys in Santa Cruz, USA
The director is Rebecca Haley Clark under the stage management of Daniel J
Hanson, with dramaturgy by Susan Myer Silton.
"As we watch the massive shifts in the world rock the very
foundations beneath our feet, we are confronted with a call to action:
What am I going to do about all this? Working on Master Harold…and
the Boys, has further solidified that gnawing question of what would I do
if I were in those circumstances, the question that always reveals itself
during times of immense change and social upheaval. Who am I really? This
play forces us to consider three different time periods. 1950. The time
period of the play itself, just after the enactment of the system of
apartheid in South Africa. 1982. The time period in which the play was
written, less than a decade before the official end of apartheid. And
2025. The here. The now. The crossroads".
Thanks to Susan for the information.
For the theatre website click
here
Falls the
Shadow in UK and Q&A
"To celebrate Fugard's life and work, Tony Palmer made the first
ever profile of this incredible man whose energy showed no sign of
diminishing well into his 80s. Palmer plumbs the soul of Fugard through
interviews with the playwright and those who knew and admired him, as well
as presenting excerpts from some of his most significant plays".
Tony Palmer will also be present after for a Q&A session
Master Harold
and the Boys in Los Angeles, USA
For the theatre website click
here
Celebration
of the Life and Work of Athol Fugard in London, UK
"The Royal Court’s relationship with Fugard began over half a
century ago, in the early 1970s, when the theatre proudly presented the
international premieres of his groundbreaking anti-apartheid plays —
Boesman and Lena (1971), Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1973), The Island (1973),
and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (1974). Sizwe
Banzi and The Island later transferred to Broadway, where co-creators and
performers John Kani OBE and Winston Ntshona were awarded Best Actor Tony
Awards".
For the theatre website click
here
Athol Fugard passes away
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).
"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).
"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). The Coat
staged reading in London
"In 1960s South Africa, a township theatre group retells the story
of a mother, her husband’s coat, and the difficult choices to be made when
living in a divided country".
The director is Ameera Conrad.
For the theatre website click
here Camino a la Meca (The Road to Mecca) in Alicante, Spain
"El camino a la Meca, de Athol Fugard, se inspira en una
mujer real, Helen Martins, que se rebeló contra todos los estamentos de su
época. Un ser que persigue el deseo, la luz de la inspiración que no
corresponde a ninguna edad ni a ninguna generación. Alguien que prefiere
las preguntas a las certezas, que valora su libertad y su autonomía
enfrentando a su tiempo y al mundo que la rodea. Al leerla escuche la voz
de Lola latiendo en cada texto. Sin trascendencias flota en el aire las
ganas de vivir con libertad y de hacerlo intensamente. Deseábamos
conformar un elenco con el que el viaje fuera enriquecedor y placentero,
porque todos sentimos que esta será una experiencia del todo
transformadora. Honrado y entusiasmado por este nuevo proyecto que creo
que va a quedar en la mente y en los corazones de los que lo hacemos y en
cada uno de los espectadores que nos acompañen"
For the theatre website click
here A Lesson from Aloes staged reading in Los Angeles, USA
The reading will be followed by a discussion of Athol’s legacy.
For the theatre website click
here The Island reading in Virginia, USA
"Since Mr. Fugard died this past February, MetroStage is honored
to pay tribute to his body of work and present a reading of this
extraordinary play. By depicting the labor required of the political
prisoners, their bond, and their commitment to telling the classic story
of “Antigone” for their fellow prisoners, Fugard has created a dramatic,
and historic masterpiece. As MetroStage director Thomas W. Jones II
described in a 2015 interview, the play depicts “themes of solidarity,
endurance, perseverance (that) are timeless”, and a “celebration of human
dignity and freedom in the face of insurmountable oppression"
For the theatre website click
here The Road to Mecca in Kingston, Canada
"This unusual drama focuses on Miss Helen, an old Boer woman
who lives alone in the South African boondocks, where she creates odd
concrete sculptures, which she calls her Mecca. A young woman who was once
helped by Miss Helen has travelled hundreds of miles to help her in a time
of crisis. Miss Helen is in danger of being sent to an old folks' home by
a narrow-minded minister, who considers her sculptures a public nuisance.
A penetrating study of the role of the artist in any society"
For the theatre website click
here
Sindu Kirilli 2 (Coming Home), India
CANCELLED but now ONLINE
For more on the play click
here.
The performance is cancelled but you
can watch the production
here. My Children My Africa in Connecticut, USA
"Generational conflict over the most effective means for
ending apartheid in South Africa lead to an explosive confrontation
between a gifted but impatient black township youth and his devoted but
“old fashioned” black teacher … The unexpected involvement of a young
white woman who befriends and learns from both men strips away the
political trappings to reveal the human trauma at the heart of South
Africa’s … tragedy"
For the theatre website click
here Master Harold... and the Boys in Westchester County, USA
"Originally produced in 1982, 'Master Harold and the Boys' is now
an acknowledged classic of the stage, whose themes of injustice, racism,
friendship, and reconciliation traverse borders and time"
For the theatre website click
here Master Harold... and the Boys in Idaho, USA
For the theatre website click
here ЭТО МОЯ ЖИЗНЬ - People are Living There (This is my Life) in Moscow
Valley Song in NY, USA
"This is the moving story of an old man’s love for his
dutiful grandchild. Buks’ Jonkers is a poor yet dignified war veteran who
is devoted to his vegetable furrows in a remote South African province. He
is anxious to shield his dreamy, restless sixteen year old granddaughter
from temptations beyond the valley. She is equally anxious to be a singer
in faraway Johannesburg. Her self made songs brim with the longings of
youth. Valley Song is a coming-of-age story about a young girl
seeking the courage to embrace the future while her grandfather searches
for the wisdom to let go of the past"
For the theatre website click
here The Island in South Africa
For more on the play click
here.
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