Dec 30, 2009

A Lesson from Aloes | Critical Overview

The play received mostly positive reviews that applauded its treatment of race relations in South Africa as well as its dramatic structure. In his essay on Fugard’s plays, Michael J. Collins insists that while A Lesson from Aloes lacks “the immediate political relevance” of his earlier work, it manages “without ever ignoring or mitigating the horrors of life in South Africa, to move beyond the particulars of place and affirm, in a world of cruelty and suffering, the value and dignity of human life everywhere.” He especially praises act 2, which he claims “is...