Athol Fugard, in full Athol Harold Lannigan Fugard, (born June 11, 1932, Middelburg, South Africa), South African dramatist, actor, and director who became internationally known for his penetrating and pessimistic analyses of South African society during the apartheid period.

What is Athol Fugard most known for?

Athol Fugard, in full Athol Harold Lannigan Fugard, (born June 11, 1932, Middelburg, South Africa), South African dramatist, actor, and director who became internationally known for his penetrating and pessimistic analyses of South African society during the apartheid period.

What influenced Athol Fugard?

Athol Fugard, as he preferred to be called, started writing seriously in his school years, inspired by stories his father had told him, and by his own voracious reading.

How did Athol Fugard feel about apartheid?

“Fugard is South Africa’s most epic, porous, and passionate white writer,” Als says. Apartheid grew under Fugard’s skin “like a boil that needed lancing,” and his 1961 play, “Blood Knot,” about two half brothers, one black and the other light-skinned, was, in Als’s view, “the first cut.”

How old is Athol Fugard?

89 years (June 11, 1932)Athol Fugard / Age

What did Athol Fugard study?

Fugard grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa raised by an Irish father and Afrikaner mother. He studied Philosophy and Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, but dropped out to hitchhike across Africa and work as a deck hand on a steamer ship.

When did Athol Fugard write Tsotsi?

Influenced by the author’s visit to Sophiatown near Johannesburg, Tsotsi was written between 1958 and 1962, but then Fugard put the manuscript away and did not think it was “worth publishing and did not show or submit it to anyone” (Kaplan in Fugard 2009:239).

How did Athol Fugard write Tsotsi?

Fugard set the novel in Fifties Soweto, the township where he and his wife, Sheila, lived, running drama workshops with black actors. Their audience was mainly poor migrant labourers, so the plays mirrored the frustrations of township life. This experience inspired a taut psychological thriller, Tsotsi.

When and where was Athol Fugard born?

June 11, 1932 (age 89 years), Middelburg, South AfricaAthol Fugard / Born

How did Athol Fugard grow up in apartheid?

What influenced Athol Fugard to Tsotsi?

Who is the protagonist in Tsotsi?

Presley Chweneyagae as David / Tsotsi: The anti-heroic leader of a gang of small-time thugs. His name, in Tsotsitaal, means “thug” or “criminal”.

How did Athol Fugard grow up?