In and Out of the Margins: The Plays of Athol Fugard

Catalog description

This seminarfocuseson the plays of Athol Fugard, the most well-known, influential, and accomplished of South African playwrights. His innovative dramatic style (drawing orignally on improvisation, Brecht, and Greek tragedy,before shifting into realistic situations and dialogue);his apartheid-challenging collaborations with black South African theater artists (especially Zekes Mokei, John Kani, and Winston N'Tshona);and his extraordinarily long career (over the past sevendecades) makehis work of particular interest to students of history, theater, and politics. Through Fugard's plays, students confront signifcant issues in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Set in the confines of the theater, these confrontations paradoxically generate a fuller engagement with the issues than we often get from accounts in the disciplines of history orpolitcal science. As Picasso once said, "Art is the lie that tells the truth," and Fugard's theater tries to do that. In studying his plays, students will learn a different kind of truth about social and historical realities that have faced South Africans over the past six decades.