Fugard has written nearly two dozen plays. All of them are set in his native South Africa, and many share some of the same qualities: intimate, small-cast, poetic dramas set against the beauty of the South African countryside and the tragedy of its politics. Fugard's first big success, The Blood Knot (1961), is about two half-brothers, one black, the other nearly white but technically "colored," and the effects of apartheid on their lives. In Master Harold. . .and the Boys (1982), a young white South African boy learns some lessons about family, love, and dignity from the two black servants in his parents' café. My Children! My Africa! (1989) explores the devastating effects of anti-apartheid demonstrations and township riots on a black teacher and two of his students, one black, the other white.

August Wilson's 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences is set in Pittsburgh...