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Summary:Athol Fugard, the renowned South African playwright, novelist, and anti-apartheid activist, passed away on March 8, 2025, at the age of 92. Throughout his prolific career, Fugard used theatre as a powerful tool to expose the injustices of apartheid, crafting plays such as The Blood Knot, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, The Island, and "Master Harold"... and the Boys. His collaborations with Black South African actors helped bring the realities of racial segregation to global audiences. Beyond the stage, his novel Tsotsi was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. Fugard remained a vital voice...

When her husband dies, aging Miss Helen begins to fill her home in the remote South African bush with strange sculptures made from beer cans and old headlights. A local clergyman and a young woman visitor try to decide whether Miss Helen's peculiar art is an outpouring of creativity or an outbreak of madness.

Academy Award-winner Athol Fugard, one of theatre's most acclaimed playwrights, finds humor and heartbreak in the friendship of Harold, a 17-year-old white boy in 1950s South Africa, and the two middle-aged black servants who raised him. Racism unexpectedly shatters Harold's childhood and friendships in this absorbing, affecting coming-of-age play. The play, initially banned from production in South Africa, is a Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding New Play.

Set in a South African traveling amusement park on New Year’s Eve, Athol Fugard’s Playland explores the possibilities for blacks and whites to find understanding in a racially divided world. A volatile dialogue begins when two men - a former soldier and a night watchman - delve into their sordid pasts. A Steppenwolf Theatre Company production.

South African actor and playwright John Kani on this edition of Fresh Air. Kani is best known for his apartheid-era politically-charged collaborations with playwright Athol Fugard. His new play, and his first as a solo playwright, is Nothing But the Truth.