#atholfugard

“Sorrows and Rejoicings” was written by Athol Fugard after he had moved from  New York to California and it is one of his first works to be written outside of South Africa. You cannot but wonder that some autobiographical element is written into the character of Dawid Olivier, played by François Maree. Marianne McDonald (2012: 205), however, writes that Fugard always remembers South Africa with longing and that “Sorrows and Rejoicings” shows the homesickness, that is experienced by Dawid Olivier, for the land of his birth and his mother tongue. Fugard, according to McDonald, wanted to write something about the many South African artists that was actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement and later went into exile, and were destroyed. Dawid Olivier quotes two of Ovid’s most moving lines about exile, one of these reading:

“My message will travel to all the people,/ All over the world my charge will be heard/ From where the sun rises to where the sun sets/ Both East and West will witness my word./ Over the earth and across vast seas/ Shall the sound of my outcry be great./ Not only the present will know your crime,/ Indicted forever will be your fate.”

In a class at Princeton in 2001, Fugard said that he based much of Dawid on himself. The alcoholism and exile that Dawid’s character went through is some of the disastrous paths that Fugard could’ve taken, especially in the years of 1967 and 1971 when his passport was taken away by the apartheid government. He, however, says that it would’ve been what the apartheid government would’ve wanted. The play is loaded with political reason as Fugard’s own life was being subjected to frequent raids and threats. Fugard was quoted as sayng:

“I look at the landscape out of the window and realize that South Africa’s tragedy is the small, meager portions of love in the hearts of the men who walk this beautiful land...South Africa is starving to death from a lack of love. This country is in the grip of its worst drought - and that drought is in the human heart. We all live here loving and hating. To leave means that the hating would win - and South Africa needs to be loved now, when it is at its ugliest, more than any other time.”

In the aforementioned words of Fugard the essence of “Sorrows and Rejoicings” as well as its inescapable truth in a post-apartheid South Africa is captured. It is clear that the characters of “Sorrows and Rejoicings” lacked talking about their situations and once brought together over the death of a man they all loved, (or didn’t really, Rebecca!), they had to open up. It is clear that the current political situations in South Africa is calling for us to talk to each other and open up what was shoved aside after South Africa became a democratic country in 1994. It is now more than ever that we should be brought together to discuss the future of our young democracy. Maybe we should shed our tears over the stinkwood table and polish it together so that we can clear the drought of our human hearts. “...South Africa needs to be loved now, when it is at its ugliest, more than any other time.”  

Dawid Olivier, however, wasn’t just based on Fugard alone but also his brother-in-law, Norman Swart, who was married to his sister, Gladys. Norman Swart died shortly after the play was written because of cancer. Norman and his wife moved to George in the Eastern Cape (where he also passed away in a hospital) after he learned that he had cancer in Johannesburg.

Allison Olivier, played by Anja van den Berg, is partially based on Mary Benson (1919-2000) the South African writer, activist, and friend of Fugard who edited the published edition of his 1960-1970 notebooks. Mary Benson lived in exile in London after being banned in 1966 by the apartheid government. Fugard dedicated this play to her, Katrina Swiers, and Dudu Nene, who lived in the Karoo and were cherished housekeepers and friends of the family. 

The play was written in three weeks and was a birthday present to Fugard himself for his seventieth birthday (June 11, 2002). On the 28th of July 2015, 48 days after his 83rd birthday, he blessed the cast of Stellenbosch Drama Department’ “Sorrows and Rejoicings” by showing up at the opening night.

We had the privilege of meeting the cast afterwards. We set up an interview with them that we recorded but the interview videos that I took were too big to upload onto the blog so please follow the following link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYH9T0Xe8Uk&feature=youtu.be. the interview is in two parts, so be sure to watch both.

I am glad to see a performance that uses the techniques that we are taught in drama school, such as Cicely Berry in “Sorrows and Rejoicings”, and put them into practice in a performance, to give a full rounded experience. The use of soundscapes were entrancing and helped to colourise the landscapes and images that Athol Fugard so beautifully penned. It was pleasing to see the actors easing into their characters and the silence of Rebecca was like a ticking time bomb that you knew had to explode any moment. The fact that the other characters ignore her most of the time, adds tension in the space and that tension goes over into a deep discomfort when Dawid and Rebecca encounter each other. 

Storytelling (oral traditions) is the root of all theatre and it is great to see that South African theatre makers want to tell stories, and South African stories at that. What is great about Fugard is that he captures the human experience in his stories. It was constantly as if one was watching one big monologue told by many characters and different perspectives.   

Minimalism is key to Fugard’s plays and it was great seeing this minimalist set drifting in an alternative space. The table, for instance, drifts in front of the audience all the time and certainly joins Rebecca as a silenced character. The silenced table becomes a character that has been there all time and that has lived through all the emotional turmoil and experiences.

All in all it was great work by the cast and crew of “Sorrows and Rejoicings”. Well done Anelle Odette Gordon for coping with the load shedding. If you haven’t seen it, make a plan. What the characters, Dawid, Rebecca, Marta, and Allison have to say, is so applicable to our current situation. 

“Sorrows and Rejoicings” is the “story of love and guilt - of broken promises but love intact, of the love of two women for one man, and of that man’s love for his country, his daughter, his language”

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Nottingham-based New Perspectives Theatre is one of our regular visiting theatre companies who have given communities much pleasure over the last 30 years with their inventive shows. Now the team behind ‘The Honey Man’ and 'Entertaining Angels' bring you 'Playland’; an inspiring piece of theatre written by one of the world's greatest playwrights.

In the heart of rural South Africa, a travelling amusement park has opened its gates. With the country in the grips of a brutal apartheid regime, the park promises an evening of thrills and laughter.

Martinus, a black South African, is the amusement park's night-watchman. Gideon, a white Afrikaner and ex-serviceman, has come along for a good night out. When they find themselves face to face, their encounter is charged with history and danger...

Athol Fugard is one of the world's most performed living playwrights, and a fearless chronicler of South Africa and its troubled history. Playland is one of his most personal and rarely performed plays; gripping, comic and deeply moving. This is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the work of one of the world's top playwrights on your doorstep.