Boesman and Lena | Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena
In the following brief review of Fugard's Boesman and Lena, author Derek Cohen discusses the juxtaposition of the simplicity of the play and the complexity of its structure to demonstrate the play's power to transcend its South African context and present an evil, dark, and hopeless world of society's creating.
The greatness of Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena lies in its capacity to extend the range of its unnerving protest far beyond its South African context. The play, so utterly and undeniably South African in its language and setting, defines and describes something of the tragedy of civilization itself, and includes in its compass the conviction that the society in which it is set is a microcosm of that civilization in its most evil and vicious details. The world it exhibits is a place where suffering, poverty, and loneliness are normal. While only the poor and impotent are...
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