CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Athol Fugard, South Africa’s foremost dramatist who explored the pervasiveness of apartheid in such searing works as “The Blood Knot” and “’Master Harold’… and the Boys” to show how the racist system distorted the humanity of his country with what he called “a daily tally of injustice,” has died. He was 92.
The South African government confirmed Fugard’s death and said South Africa “has lost one of its greatest literary and theatrical icons, whose work shaped the cultural and social landscape of our nation.”
Six of Fugard’s plays landed on Broadway, including “The Blood Knot” and two productions of “’Master Harold’… and the Boys.”
“The Blood Knot” tells of how the relationship between two Black half-brothers deteriorates because one has lighter skin and can pass for white, which ultimately leads to him treating his darker half-brother as an inferior.
“We were cursed with apartheid but blessed with great artists who shone a light on its impact and helped to guide us out of it. We owe a huge debt to this late, wonderful man,” South African Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said of Fugard.
Because Fugard’s best-known plays center on the suffering caused by the apartheid policies of South Africa’s white-minority government, some among Fugard’s audience abroad were surprised to find he was white himself.
He challenged the apartheid government’s segregation laws by collaborating with Black actors and writers, and “The Blood Knot” — where he played the light-skinned brother — was believed to be the first major play in South Africa to feature a multiracial cast.
Fugard became a target for the government and his passport was taken away for four years after he directed a Black theater workshop, “The Serpent Players.” Five workshop members were imprisoned on Robben Island, where South Africa kept political prisoners during apartheid, including Nelson Mandela. Fugard and his family endured years of government surveillance; their mail was opened, their phones tapped, and their home subjected to midnight police searches.
Fugard told an interviewer that the best theater in Africa would come from South Africa because the “daily tally of injustice and brutality has forced a maturity of thinking and feeling and an awareness of basic values I do not find equaled anywhere in Africa.”
He…