Some of Fugard´s most famous work. Set in Port Elizabeth the plays feature families torn apart by poverty and apartheid.

Fugard says this was the first play in which he discovered his voice. It was his first international success with Zakes Mokae (left) and Fugard (right) playing the two roles in 1961 in Johannesburg.  The play (The Blood Knot) originally ran for 3-4 hours though the rewrite (renamed Blood Knot) brought it to a manageable size.  A blood knot is a fishing knot to join two separate ropes, but the knot in the play is the two characters' common blood.

Two brothers, both are ethnically black but one could pass for white. The "white" one has written a letter to a white girl who will visit him. Gradually the fear of her visit takes over. The two are a metaphor for South Africa and the separate races.  Funniest line is when Morris gets to read his favourite passage from the bible: "Bed time. My turn to chose the reading tonight. Matthew. I like Matthew. And Asa begat Josephat, and Josephat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and Ozias begat Joatham, and Joatham begat Achaz, and Achgaz begat…".

"... Blood Knot sometimes echoes with echoes, and speaks in the voices of Genet, Pinter and even the John Steinbeck of Of Mice and Men.  But Atholl (sic) Fugard, a white South African, shuns preachments and never overestimates the human equation.  His symbols are the kind that laugh, cry and bleed" (from In The Prison of Color, Time Magazinem 13 March 1964).

Chris Edwards and Leopold Lowe in Patricia R. Floyd version for Stamford Theatre Works

The rewrite consists of small topical updates ("How much does that cost/ Two and six" becomes "How much does that cost/ twenty five cents") but the major change is the cutting of almost all monologues, considerably reducing the running time and moving the dynamics of the play towards dialogue.  Fugard says "it was in this room late at night that the sight of my brother...who was fast asleep in the bed, gave me the seminal image for The Bloodknot" (sic).

Blood Knot as performed in Iran, looking very much like Beckett.  Thanks to Iman Afsharian for the photo.

"No change...I'm a fraction older"
 "You don't recognise me at all? / I admit I haven't had a really good look yet. I start with the feet and work up"

Shaleen Surtie-Richards and Royston Stoffels in the Afrikaans translation Hallo en Koebaai

 Athol Fugard played Johnnie and Molly Seftel played Hester in the original production in Johannesburg in 1965. Barney Simon directed. Other actors playing the roles include Martin Sheen and Ben Kingsley and Janet Suzman. When Fugard directed in London in 1974 Bill Flynn and Yvonne Brycleland starred.  The room comes from Fugard´s memories of his mother "my mother was a compulsive hoarder, and all the rubbish that she hadn't been able to throw away...ended up in cardboard boxes and suitcases and bags and biscuit tins under beds and on top of already jam packed wardrobes and chests of drawers."  The crutches come from Fugard´s father "on my last afternoon he hobbled in on his crutches...his sobbing misery, my tears and the sense of betrayal and desertion- another pivotal image in Hello and Goodbye"

image from Trafalgar Studios programme 2007

"Mr. Fugard takes two not especially remarkable or unusual characters and by the sheer skill of his writing forces us to take an interest in them. The play is set in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, but it could be set anywhere. A young boy has just buried his father-to whom he was apparently devoted. His solitude is broken by the arrival of his elder sister, as tough as a husk… It is to Mr. Fugard's credit that we care about these people, and even worry what will have happened to them by the final curtain…to be sure they are essentially clichés, the life-stale floozie who wants a break and the bewildered boy scared to face life, these we have met before. But Mr. Fugard gives them a revivifying breath of theatricality, and the actors do the rest" (Clive Barnes, New York Times, 19 September 1969).

The Last Bus 1969 and Friday's Bread on Monday 1970

The Last Bus is a workshop piece with John Kani, Winston Ntshona and The Sepent Players. Fugard directs. In the Notebooks Fugard says "Johnnie and Winston tried to introduce a psychology, an attitude, the Ja, my baas [Yes boss] of the lowest coloured as opposed to the I am a man dignity... language a bold mixture of Afrikaans, English and Xhosa...vivid and real". 

Friday's Bread on Monday is also a workshop piece, again directed by Fugard and with Kani and Ntshona. There is a lot of mime in this piece. Rob Amato (in Stephen Gray´s book) says "the impact... left the largely white audience stunned. Although it dealt with deprivation...it was not a chry for sympathy. This is where its great strength lay".

"Ja, thats the way it is. When I want to cry, you want to laugh"
"In the main, it is a long tale of suffering and despair, of travelling from place to place as an outcast"
"Leave your bruises on the earth"

Boesman and Lena from 1969.  "Boesmand and Lena exist on the outskirts of civilization, the barren mudflats of South Africa. It is an emotional wasteland, somewhat akin to the environment of “Waiting for Godot”—and Atkin Pace's set could also serve as a place for “Godot.” But unlike Didi and Gogo, Boesman and Lena are not waiting for deliverance, or even for a messenger. They are already defeated, ruined by the limits and the repressions of their lives. Their memories of their life together become a litany of halfforgotten destinations. The tourney is a treadmill.... As the playwright has suggested, the characters are each other's fate. They are bound in a tie as strong as a blood knot. They have shared, suffered and they are enduring. For all its apparent bleakness, the drama is an uplifting endorsement of the indomitability of mankind" (Mel Gussow, New York Times, 2 February 1977).

Boesman and Lena are husband and wife, homeless, so walking with all their possessions. The only person they meet is the silent Outa, in even worse condition than they are. But Outa will be a catalyst for Lena.  Mary Benson in Bare Stage quotes Fugard "I've dredged up a trio of real derelicts this time. I'm called Boesman, the woman is Lena and the third character is something of an indeterminate verminous and dying age called Outa" (Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: Bare Stage, a Few Props, 1986) Benson says she realised Fugard the play had its roots in his relationship with his wife Sheila.  Fugard directed the premiere at Rhodes University with the cast of himself, Yvonne Bryceland and Glynn Day. He would later direct Zakes Mokae taking over his role.

"Right, so much for the stage directions. Now the characters."

Master Harold...and the Boys from 1982.  Based on a childhood incident Fugard demonstrates the power of apartheid to corrupt.  The boys are the black servants but who is really master and who the boys?  The premiere was in Yale Theatre America with Fugard directing Danny Glover, Zakes Mokae and Zeljko Ivanek. Fugard would later direct John Kani and James Earl Jones in the play.  The play was rated number 50 on the Royal National Theatre's most significant plays of the twentieth century, equal with Betrayal by Harold Pinter, Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill.

Conrad Kemp, George Seremba and Joe Vera in Bairbre Ni Chaoimh production for Helix Original

Critic Richard Gilman says "Master Harold"... and the boys had a limited run in its world premiere at the Yale Repertory Theatre, but it is certain to come to New York City.  One hopes that in its reincarnation it will have the same actors who played Willie and Sam ay Yale.  Zakes Mokae as Sam and Danny Glover as Willie are extraordinarily good: they press for nothing, underscore no emotions, but ride easily along the swell of the textual wave or, in keeping with one of the plot elements move like supremely gifted ballroom dancers.  Zeljko Ivanek as Hally and Fugard in his capacity as director are distinctly inferior to them: Ivanek is much too brittle, too given to abrupt jagged moments, and Fugard exhibits an often shaky directorial hand.  Nothing fatal here, but there's room for improvement. (Nation, 1 May 1982, reproduced in The Drama is Coming Now: The Theatre Criticism of Richard Gilman, Yale University Press, 2005).

Photos from the 2010 film.