Biography of Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, and director, who often writes on the subject of South African apartheid. His works commonly feature critical investigations of South African history. In 1985, Time Magazine called Fugard "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world." His plays include The Cell, The Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa!, Sorrows and Rejoicings, The Shadow and the Hummingbird, and others. He is also known for writing the novel Tsotsi, which was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film.

Born in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa, took an early interest in the humanities. He attended University of Cape Town, where he studied Philosophy and Social Anthropology. Subsequently, Fugard dropped out of university and spent time working on a steamer ship in North Africa, before moving to Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court. There he began to become interested in the fallout of South African apartheid, and the injustices built into its hierarchical system.

In 1958, Fugard began writing plays, many of which were critical of South African politics, and had them produced and published outside the country to avoid censorship. In 1958, he organized a multiracial theater to stage his plays. In the 1960s, he formed the Serpent Players, a group of Black actors who made their living outside the theater. Fugard was an active proponent of various anti-apartheid political groups. His plays Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island were critically applauded for their unsparing depiction of the cruelty of apartheid-era politics.

In the 1980s, Fugard premiered several plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre including "Master Harold"...and the Boys, The Road to Mecca, and A Place with His Pigs. Both "Master Harold"...and the Boys and The Road to Mecca received critical praise and were noted for incorporating autobiographical material from Fugard's life.

Following the end of apartheid, in 1995, Fugard premiered Valley Song in South Africa, a play about two farmers, one white and one Black, in a dispute over land titles. In 2009, Fugard put out Coming Home, a companion play to Valley Song. The play premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre and depicted the life of the granddaughter of one of the farmers. In 2014, Fugard returned with the short play, The Shadow of a Hummingbird, which was staged at the Long Wharf Theatre.

Fugard has received many honors and awards, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre" from the government of South Africa and the 2011 Tony Award for lifetime achievement. He was also named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2010, Fugard was celebrated in Cape Town with the opening of the Fugard Theatre in District Six. Fugard continues to reside in South Africa.