Athol FugardReviews

Crime

This is a short but poignant play about philosophy, family conflict, and aging. It unfolds quickly and features some meaty monologues by our protagonist.

Everyone should read this play. It's truly powerful.

Everyone should read this play. It's truly powerful.

Everyone should read this play. It's truly powerful.

Everyone should read this play. It's truly powerful.

this was hard for me, but it got easier toward the end. it took me almost 4 days to get through the first 40 pages, because the writing is so tough, not because of the content. i don't know if i just got more used to the writing or if it changed a bit, but it did get easier. the story is hard, too, but more abstractly so, i thought, because of the way it's written. also, probably, because of how removed tsotsi is from his own life, so the reader doesn't care a whole lot, either. as he comes into more of an ability to care and to evaluate, to question and to remember, the reader becomes more involved and interested as well, and the writing becomes clearer and less abstruse. i'm a little uncomfortable with what seems like maybe a religious/christian epiphany thing happening at the end, although it ins't (like much of the book) entirely clear.

i really liked that this edition had fugard's notes in the back, so i could see the meaning he was intending behind some aspects of the story.

"The ache in his legs was no worse than a ten-day-old knife wound." i find a statement like this to be both totally unrelateable and totally fascinating. to choose to use that comparison, when virtually no reader will understand it, is really interesting to me. what he's saying about this character's experience and how outside most readers' understanding it is.

Worldwide premiere: 8 October 1972 at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa, followed by 1973 premiere in UK and 1974 in USA.

The play weaves a story inside of a story - we start with Styles, a photographer in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reading a newspaper and commenting on what he is reading (including an old story from his previous work in a factory). Until a man named Robert Zwelinzima walks in - and before that man get hist picture taken, we will hear his story.

Once upon a time lived a man called Sizwe Bansi. He came to Port Elizabeth to look for work but things did not go as expected and he was told that he needs to leave. You see, Sizwe is black and this is the Apartheid era in South Africa - if you do not have the correct papers and skin color, you are not welcome in the big city - even looking for work requires a permit. The problem of course is that if he goes back, things will be even worse - there is no work back home for him and he has a family and kids. So he tries to stay, get captured and then is given 3 days to leave. Which he ignores - he does not really have a choice. And one night, he finds a dead body. Robert Zwelinzima may have lost his life but he has something that Sizwe does not have - papers allowing him to look for work. And the fotos on these papers are easily changed and even if you cannot read, you can learn and remember enough if your life depends on it.

In 1972, Athol Fugard is not the household name he will become later - he had won one major award and most of his more popular works are still to be written. This play is not even his completely - it is one of the two plays he develops in a workshop with John Kani and Winston Ntshona. But it does sound like one of his -- shining a light to the Apartheid in South Africa and its nightmares.

I definitely plan to read more of his plays.

I read this play as part of a summer reading challenge. I really enjoyed it!
I know next to nothing about South Africa. It's shameful really. I think the little I know about Nelson Mandela was from a book I read in the fifth grade. I was pretty excited when they mentioned him. I finally felt like I wasn't 100% ignorant.
Jim gave me a whole stack of books written by authors from Africa. I need to take a class about literature from Africa, because there really is so much I didn't understand. It's amazing how giant that continent is, and how little we cover in world history. This book piqued my interest, and I hope I get a chance to learn more.
I'll be honest though, it probably won't happen unless I take a class- because I am just not that motivated of a person. SO SAD! (As Donald Trump would say- except he wouldn't say it about that- because I don't think he cares about Africa at all....cause he is a horrible person...)

Sometimes a book will bring back to you the pretentiousness of mid-20th century theatre (not that it is much less pretentious now). The self-righteousness of trying to remove the writer from the process because it is more egalitarian and more "authentic" (whatever the hell that means) to just have people sort of "do" things and then get a script together that is not the process of careful planning (and therefore inauthentic). This is a collection of just such scripts, by an author who puts together some astonishing works when he accepts careful planning as something worthwhile. These are decent scripts, but too talky, not earth shattering, and lacking the sublimnity of some of the author's other works. Fortunately, as his introduction indicated, he has gone back to the "lone writer in the garret" model of writing, as has much of theatre. Interesting for a trace of the history of mid-20th century theatre, as well as the political history of mid-20th century South Africa. They lie somewhere in that gray zone, containing probably 99% of the plays that get produced in this world, of "not bad, but could have been much better".½

This book covers 6 days in the life of a young gang leader in the township of Soweto. He is brutal and regularly commits vicious and senseless crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby during the course of committing a crime, he begins to remember his own childhood, and, almost against his will, begins to care for the baby.

This book so convincingly conveyed the life of a street child growing up in a hopeless environment, subsisting on a life of crime, living the hardships of the slums of Soweto, that I was amazed to learn that South African writer Athol Fugard is white.

The book was made into a highly-regarded movie (which was the impetus for my reading this book), which I also highly recommend.½

A beautiful play, in more ways than one. It is a large play, examining issues of race, gender, and faith, as well as love and friendship. This is, like others by this author, a brave play, daring to walk through fire to deliver a dynamic story. Two people battle for the soul of an older woman, who knows what she wants but not how to get it. She needs to remain in her home, surrounded by the things she loved, and not be trundled off to a senior center where she will have a small room with none of the world she has painstakingly built. The entire town is aligned against her, and she has only a single friend who lives 800 miles away to help her. Seeing this play performed would likely be such a visual experience you wouldn't quickly forget it.

Helen, whose husband’s death has caused her to stave off various bouts of depression and battles with, to use her word, “darkness,” has recently re-discovered her gift for sculpture. Her back yard – which Helen calls her Mecca - is full of bright, colorful, life-sized figures of biblical wise men, birds, and anything else her imagination encourages her to make. One of Helen’s only remaining friends, Elsa, pays her a surprise visit from Cape Town. During their discussion, Helen mentions that the dominee at her local Church, Byleveld, has taken it upon himself to suggest to her that she should consider moving into a convalescent home. Byleveld claims to express concern for the Church, but also for others in New Bethesda who think that Helen has become a mad eccentric, tottering on senility. Even though Helen is unable to do some things for herself, she has a local woman come to her house a few times a week, and seems very capable of living alone. Elsa vehemently urges Helen to resist Byleveld’s “help,” and refuse his offer. He’s even gone so far as to fill out the paperwork for the home; all he needs is her signature.

The play consists of only three characters, but the balance, dynamism, and tension between them is beautiful and subtle. While Byleveld could easily come off as patriarchal and overbearing, Fugard leaves plenty of room for the reader to believe that he’s really doing what he thinks is in Helen’s best interests, even though we are not to mistake his interruption as anything other than heavy-handedness. He’s not the easy-to-hate bigot that would have been caricatural. In a number of ways, Elsa is more of a caricature, with her youthful idealism and cosmopolitan, rigorous rejection of Afrikaner tradition.

As all great drama does, this resonates on a number of levels. It’s a comment on aging and how sometimes we see aging as a necessary loss of personal volition and independence. The disagreements between Byleveld and Elsa embody many of the dualisms that South Africans were dealing with thirty years ago, and to some extent continue to deal with: the rural versus the urban, the religious versus the secular, and a conscious effort to crush artistic openness and personal freedom versus a volitional effort to let that openness, or eccentricity as Byleveld calls it, flourish and prosper.

It might strike some as interesting that, for a play written in apartheid South Africa, I haven’t mentioned race. It’s not a major theme, but its presence is as insidious as Byleveld’s. Elsa is worried about her privilege, especially how it might impinge upon the lives of others, in compelling and sincere ways. On the way to visit Helen, Elsa gave a ride to a young black woman with a child, and she is haunted by what might have happened to her after they parted. By the end of the play, Elsa and Helen have rebuilt the trust that was compromised by Helen being ambivalent about standing up to Byleveld.

Athol Fugard is South Africa’s most well-known playwright, perhaps best known for “Master Harold … and the Boys.” I’d never read anything by him when I found “The Road to Mecca” last weekend at a library book sale for fifty cents. And after reading this, I’m even more eager to read more by him than I was before.

Tsotsi is a novel set in a South African township in the late Seventies, where a young nameless thug (the 'tsotsi' of the title) finds himself with a newborn to care for. I feel that this might have made a better drama or movie than it did a novel (indeed, it was made into a movie a few years ago); some of the characters are two-dimensional/symbolic enough on the page that I think they might have worked better in that medium. I've also seen some commentary online saying that this isn't a very accurate depiction of life for young black man in the Soweto of the time, singling out in particular that Fugard has Tsotsi and his gang talking in Afrikaans to one another, but as I'm far from an expert on South Africa I can't speak to the accuracy of that critique. Still, it's mostly well-written (apart from one scene towards the end set in the grounds of a church that had all the subtlety of an anvil dropping), even if I don't know that I'll find it especially memorable.

Audience: Grade 9 and Up
South Africa, 1950. Sam and Willie, black men in their mid-forties, are working at a tearoom. The men are practicing for an upcoming ballroom competition when Harry, the white seventeen-year-old son of the owners, arrives from school. Harry and Sam engage in intellectual sparing as they discuss men of magnitude. The lively conversation turns into reminiscing as Sam remembers his first interactions with Harry. The tone is friendly until Harry receives news that his father is leaving the hospital to return home. Harry’s mood turns sour, and he takes his anger out on Sam and Willie. The angrier Harry gets, the uglier his behavior becomes, and Sam and Willie are faced with humiliation as Harry repeats his father’s language of the apartheid. A line is crossed that will forever change Harry and Sam’s relationship.

Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”…and the Boys is a one-act play that exposes the injustices of the apartheid system. The grown men know that standing up to the teenager’s humiliation would mean paying a price too high that neither one can afford. It is hard not to cringe when Harry devolves into a bigot and repeats the words of his father to subjugate Sam and Willie. The tearoom becomes a microcosm of a country where policy dictated one’s place in society based on one’s skin color. The play is a study in power—who has it and who does not, and the implications to interpersonal relationships. Harry sees himself as Sam’s mentor, therefore in power; when Sam seeks to dissuade Harry from speaking poorly of his father, Sam’s reaction is to dig deep into the discourse of bigotry to put Sam back in his place. The play offers rich material for discussions about racism, bigotry, power, and human relations.

i picked this up in the airport because i accidentally left my book at home. unfortunately, i already owned every other book in the store that i was remotely interested in reading, so i was stuck with this one. lucky for me, it turned out to be pretty good. its about a boy, or maybe a man (you never really find out), that is the leader of a small local gang. he has no recollection of his past, where he came from, what his name is, how old he is. an infant is dropped into his arms, abandoned and alone, and he somehow finds memory of his childhood in the baby. its a great story of youth and individual transformation. however, if graphic violence bothers you, this book has a few moments that are american psycho-ish.apparently, this one has also been made into a movie and has won tons of awards in the film circle as a more independent syle film (not mainstream i guess). i'll have to see if i can find it.

"Master Harold" and the boys is a short play that has an immense impact upon first reading. The playwright Athol Fugard manages to imagine a relationship between a boy and two Black servants in early 1950s in South Africa and make it become a universal experience that continues to resonate with readers in the Twenty-first century. I was impressed with the economy of words that were used to express multiple levels of feeling and meaning throughout the play. The culture of England, long the colonial power in this country, is also ever present in language and simple things such the names of towns.

The basic story is a simple tale of a boy, Hal, on the verge of manhood struggling with his education and his relationship both with his friends, the Black servants Sam and Willie, and his father who is nearing the end of what must have been a tyrannical patriarchy. Hal, who is "Master Harold" to Willie and plain Hally to Sam and everyone else, struggles through the issues of his relationships and what they mean until the difficulties with his father overtake him and he lashes out at the Black servants, reminding the reader that this is the era of apartheid and this is South Africa. One of the most powerful metaphors is that of the dance that is used from the opening of the play and culminates in a beautiful moment as the linchpin for transcendent beauty and the meaning of art. The day ends with tentative attempts at reconciliation, but we are left wondering whether the next day will bring a new level of maturity and hope for the master and his boys or more of the same tensions that make compassionate friendship crumble in this moving drama.

This was a book that I read for a RL book group, although I had already purchased it for myself.

It is set in South Africa during apartheid in a township outside Johannesburg. The township, Sophiatown, was destroyed in the 50s, to make way for the white city to expand. The townships are the only place near the city where blacks can live.

The buildings are flimsy shacks made of odds and ends and the roads aren't paved. There is a communal water standpipe that blocks and blocks of people have to share. The only people who should be living there are those who work in the white city and have a pass. If they don't have a pass they are supposed to be go to black homelands, that have even less of the necessities of life.

Periodically the police conduct pass raids and pull people out of their beds, not even letting them get their pass to prove they belong. Mothers are torn from children, and old people are given no slack. Demolition gangs also come in and start destroying shacks, even if they are inhabited, the people with no place to live are carted off.

In this setting the POV character lives. He is a young man, early 20s and he is a criminal. A tough, vicious, thug who preys on those who try to eke out a poor life in the township. These young men are called Tsotsi as a group. Because the POV was a street child he has no past, no parents and no memories -- not even his name. He takes Tsotsi as his name.

He runs with 3 others like him. But one is a time-bomb that will soon shake Tsotsi's life. Boston is not just a thug, but a thinker, and a formerly decent man with a conscious. He infects Tsotsi with questions about his past, and his cruel actions currently.

Tsotsi ends up with a baby when the woman he is trying to rape, shoves a shoe box at him and runs off. Tsotsi has begun to change because he keeps the baby and tries to care for it. It triggers his memories of life before the streets. He makes further changes by breaking with his gang.

The end is quite devastating.

The writing is very simple and it works so well for the characters who are not educated, and who grapple with just trying to live and survive.

There are terrible heartbreaking scenes of the struggles the decent characters have, that show their humanity and dignity. Their world is comprised of simple pleasures: food, shelter, safety, love of family, a moment of peace.

The thugs are shown lazing, drinking, and abusing women while they wait for dark and plan their next job. Their lives are empty regardless of the money and free time they have.

Through it all are the oppressive laws and police that try to force the blacks into the shape the whites want, while denying them the basic status of humans.

Tsotsi's memories show the direct impact of the whites in their lives and of how people are broken and families destroyed all for the crime of being black.½

Great for finding scenes for two female actresses. Other than that, I found it a bit hard to swallow - too depressing and dark, although I suppose the ending compensates for that. All in all, I think it is very well written and a great look at what happens when people are lonely and left to create their own world.½

Tsotsi is a gang leader in Sophiatown, one of the more depressing townships in South-Africa. He doesn't know his past, he seems to have no conscience. He kills and rapes like a machine. One day, when he is about to rape a young woman, she manages to force a shoe box onto him, containing a baby. That baby changes his life, he takes care of it as well as he can (which is not well at all), it brings back memories of his own past, brings back a conscience. No matter how rude the society, there will always be hope, is what fugard seems to say. Then, near the end, Fugard, surprises you in the most macabre way possible.

This book will never leave you as you were.

Loved the actor. Engrossing film. Performers so natural. Language South African with English subtitles

Seventeen-year old Hally, also known as Master Harold, get into trouble with Sam and Willie two black men who work for his family, due to the frustration and fear he feels about his crippled and alcoholic father getting out of the hospital. This play has a mature subject matter about race relations in South Africa. It could be used to compare aspects of apartheid with segregation in the United States in the classroom.

The Man Can Blow You Away

As far as I know this is the only novel written by the great South African playwright Athol Fugard. "Tsotsi" means gangster in the South African vernacular, and that is the name and life of the central character of the book. Sophiatown, in which the book is set, is one of the oldest black satellite townships that ring Johannesburg, and was for years, a vibrant, wild, lawless community thrown together because of the race laws. This is an illuminating book, but also a strange one, and I felt it was very like a play with extended cast notes and stage directions. It would make a good play, or in the right hands, an even better film.

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