Oct 10, 2008

A Lesson from Aloes | The Afrikaner Characters in A Lesson from Aloes

In the following excerpt, Durbach explores the Afrikaner characters in A Lesson from Aloes who want to “create a world of sustaining order” amid the chaos in South Africa in the 1960s, like the “miraculous” aloe plant which springs forth from seemingly deficient and hostile land.

When A Lesson from Aloes premiered in Johannesburg, Fugard himself played the role of Steve Daniels. When it opened in New Haven, James Earl Jones was cast as Steve. The role, clearly, is ambiguously “Coloured” ; but it would be a mistake to regard Steve Daniels as a representative of the Black South African community (which has its own story, its own peculiar hell, and a very different history). The significant fact about the three million Coloureds in the Cape Province is that they are the racially mixed children of predominantly Afrikaner parentage—

Damned from...