The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Fugard, Athol
Fugard, Athol
(
1932
–
),
South African
playwright, born in Middlesburg, the son of a small shopowner; he was brought up in Port Elizabeth and educated there and at Cape Town University. After various jobs, some connected with the theatre, he moved in
1958
with his actress wife to
Johannesburg
, where he worked for some time as clerk to the Native Commissioner's Court, an experience which greatly sharpened his awareness of racial tension and inequality, the subject of much of his drama. His plays include The Blood Knot (
1961
, pub.
1963
), about the fraught relationship of two coloured brothers; Boesman and Lena (
1968
, pub.
1969
), a sombre work figuring a derelict middle-aged couple of Coloured migrant workers, whose presence as they set up their shelter on the open stage has a symbolic quality akin to that of the characters of
Beckett
; Sizwe Bansi is Dead (
1972
, pub.
1974
, written...
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