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Athol Fugard |
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Athol Fugard is the most important South African playwright and the first to have an international reputation. His plays command audiences the world over, despite their local origins and idiom. He has been hailed by William A. Henry in Time magazine (18 April 1988) as the "foremost active playwright in the English-speaking world." This claim is probably an exaggeration, but he has certainly transformed the unknown, ordinary people of his own small corner of the Eastern Cape into dramatic images of profound and lasting significance. His collaborative work with performers across the racial divide during the years of apartheid not only helped to legitimize black experience as a form of cultural expression but also has proved an enduring influence on alternative theater in South Africa--itself a remarkably innovative, distinctive theatrical subgenre. Known variously as a writer, director, and performer, his commitment to the theater and his moral concern are both large and inseparable.
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