Fugard was a South African shining playwright, novelist, actor, a keen anti-apartheid activist, and a passionate advocate for social justice and democracy in South Africa and beyond.
Fugard's famous 1973 play was 'The Island', which was developed with the 'Serpent Group', exposing the true horrors of the South African apartheid regime. The authorities considered the title of the Island, which implies to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 27 years, was too controversial. So Fugard and the Serpent players got forced to use an alternative title, 'The Hodoshe Span', a native name for (Carrion fly).
Mandela would later say how significant this play reflected the fight for democracy, and what people do to survive regardless of these horrible situations.
Fugard was born on June 11th, in Eastern Cape. His father Harold Fugard was of European descent. His mother Marie was an Afrikaner (Dutch settlers). His family was always close to poverty, so they moved to Port Elizabeth, looking for a better life.
After primary school, Fugard attended Port Elizabeth (officially named' Gqeberha' in 2021) Technical College. Then he started studying Philosophy and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town, but he didn't finish his studies and dropped out in 1953, to become a writer, which he desired.
Fugard hitchhiked with a friend to Port Sudan in North Africa. They worked in various jobs, then as a deckhand on the steamship SS Graigaur got bound for Japan. Working with different races and cultures on that ship enabled him to see how people are not different. What mattered was who you were and how you connected with each other.
After coming back to Johannesburg, Fugard found a job as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court, setup in the Apartheid Regime. Apartheid divided races under the white minority rule. Black majorities were denied all their rights as human-beings. Blacks, Indians, and coloured people had to have PASS to be allowed to move through or be in, and if anyone was found outside of these areas they would be arrested. The court held trials for those who had broken the PASS laws.
This was the reason behind Fugard's hate growing against the segregation regime. He begun to make friends in the mostly black Sophiatown, a suburb of Johannesburg. The town was racially mixed before the apartheid Regime was formed in 1948, (not surprising that the same year the Zionist regime was created in Palestine, and both were under the rule of British imperialism).
In 1956, he married first wife Sheila Meiring, a writer of short stories and playwright.
In 1958, Fugard organised a multiracial theatre for which he wrote, acted, and directed many works.
In the early 1960s, Athol and Sheila returned to Port Elizabeth and founded the "Circle Players", which derives its name from a production of the "Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Bertolt Brecht.
Fugard's real breakthrough developed at the time of the killings in Sharpeville in1960. About 5000 unarmed people gathered in front of the police office in Sharpeville to protest against the passport system. Police opened fire on them, and as a result at least 91 people were killed and more than 238 were wounded, including children on that day.
He was then inspired to write a play which was then called 'The Blood Knot'. It was about two half-brothers, where one of them looked whiter than the other, and the struggles between them.
In the U.K. Fugard publicly supported the call of the "Anti-Apartheid Movement", for an international boycott of apartheid South Africa. The Movement increasingly adopted the liberation fight with Nelson Mandela as its symbolic figurehead. This resulted in additional controls and surveillance against Fugard in South Africa.
Fugard started to have his plays published and produced outside South Africa.
In 1964, 'Lucille Wadler' produced Fugard's plays in Broadway New York City.
Fugard produced more than 30 plays in his lifetime, some by the assistance of his favourite actors and actresses. He created many great female roles, especially with actress 'Yvonne Bryceland'.
All Fugard's play characters were poor, abandoned people, tramps and people on the fringes. His works helped people to understand the world we live in, the displaced, oppressed, and war-stricken people moving around the world looking for a safe home, a world no longer safe and humane.
In the 1990s, Fugard lived in San Diego, California, then in Indiana from 2000-2001, where he taught at the universities as a professor of playwriting, acting, and directing.
Fugard was disappointed with the path of post-Apartheid politics. He saw racism and exploitation exist beneath the laws. He deemed as a tragedy that Nelson Mandela had not chosen a second term as President to "entrench his vision".
After 60 years of marriage, Athul and Sheila divorced in 2015. In 2016, Fugard married Paula Fourie, a South African writer and academic.
Fugard won many awards for his achievements.
Fugard died recently on March 8th 2025, in West Cape at the age of 92.
Fugard's' famous works:
Klaas and the Devil (1956).
The Cell (1957).
No-Good Friday (1958).
Non-Gogo (1959).
Blood Knot: A play in 3 acts (1961).
Hello and Goodbye: A play in 2 acts (1965).
The Coat (1966).
People are Living There: A drama in 2 acts (1968).
The Last Bus (1969).
Boesman and Lena: A play in 2 acts (1969).
Friday's Bread on Monday (1970).
Statement After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (1972).
Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972).
The Island (1973).
Statements (three plays) by Athol Fugard, John Kani, Winston Ntshona (1974).
Dimetos (1975).
Orestes (1978).
A Lesson from Aloes: A play (1978).
Tsotsi, a novel (1980).
The Drummer (1980).
"Master Harold" ... and the Boys (1982).
Notebooks, 1960-1977 (1983).
The Road to Mecca (1984). Playland: And a place with the pigs, 2 plays (1987).
My Children! My Africa (1989).
My Life (1992).
Playland (1993).
Cousins: A memoir (1994).
Vally Song (1996).
The Captains Tiger: A memoir for the stage (1997).
Interior Plays (2000).
Sorrows and Rejoicings (2001).
Exits and Entrances (2004).
Booitjie and Oubaas (2006).
Victory (2007).
Have you Seen Us (2009).
Coming home (2009).
The Train Driver (2010).
The Shadow of the Hummingbird (2014).
The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (2016).
Concerning the Life of Babyboy Kleintjies (co-written with Paula Fourie), 2022.
