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Playwright Andrea James has researched a story from the 1840s, in which colonial newspapers suggested that a 'white woman' – maybe the survivor of a shipwreck – had been taken captive by Gunaikurnai people in what is now eastern Victoria. Andrea interrogates the legend in a riveting new play called The Black Woman of Gippsland.In 1895 Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two gruelling years in Reading Gaol, for being homosexual. The experience broke his health and spirit, and towards the end of his ordeal he wrote an impassioned 80-page letter called De Profundis ('from the depths'). Acclaimed actor and singer Paul Capsis is performing the letter on stage.Athol Fugard wrote influential plays about the injustices of South Africa's racist Apartheid system on everyday people, for decades. Fugard died last month and fellow playwright and scholar Anthony Akerman tells Michael about his work and impact.
In this episode I read an interview between playwright Athol Fugard and scholar-director Floyd Gaffney, which was published in the journal TheatreForum in 1992 in their first issue. I read it in memory of Fugard's passing this year 2025. But also in memory of TheatreForum as a journal that stopped publishing, and whose presence in the field is missed.
Professor Chris Thurman joins John Maytham for a tribute to the legendary playwright Athol Fugard. A fearless critic of apartheid, Fugard’s deeply human storytelling shaped theatre both locally and globally. From The Blood Knot to “Master Harold”…and the Boys, his works challenged injustice and amplified silenced voices. They explore his impact on stage, film, and academia, his fight against censorship, and the lasting relevance of his work. How will Fugard’s legacy continue to shape South African theatre and literature?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Die DA sê Athol Fugard se diepsinnige bydraes tot Suid-Afrikaanse teater en die vryheidstryd sal geslagte lank onthou word. Fugard wat in die Oos-Kaap gebore is en op 92-jarige leeftyd dood is, het in 1961 bekendheid verwerf met Blood Knot. ʼn DA-woordvoerder, Joe McGluwa, sê Suid-Afrikaners rou oor die letterkundige reus se dood:
Donluiz makes his being palpable in the catalogue with 3 illustrious grounded minimal & tech vibrations to this contribution, and this time around, he affiliates with Menzaro Suzaki on this body of work. The main track 'Vault Of Spooky' is accompanied by a dub version and a remix by Leo Furgad, who exercises his skill in this dark space of harmony. Enjoy!!! #DHCSA
Rodney Trudgeon's guest on this week's edition of People of Note is the distinguished South African actor JOHN KANI. John's extraordinary career has led to countless awards and honours both locally and internationally and in 2015 the Market Theatre in Johannesburg re-named their main theatre the John Kani Theatre. In 2004 John Kani was voted as among the Top 100 Great South Africans. His latest play Kunene and the King – a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre – has just completed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed season at the Fugard with Sir Anthony Sher starring opposite John.
This Week Tarryn chats to South African Actor Michael William Wallace. Self made creative entrepreneur, Michael William Wallace, started his career as a performing artist. Acquiring his accreditation from Trinity College of London, Michael went on to perform in various theatre productions locally and internationally. Such productions include the European tour of Show Boat, the Fugard theatre's acclaimed Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, West Side Story and Showtimes Priscilla Queen of the desert. Michael has starred in a number of commercials for brands such as BMW, Samsung, Heineken and Nintendo worldwide campaigns reaching over 28 Million views globally. After starting Madevu Entertainment, his own production company with business partner Zolani Shangase in 2017, Michael went on to produce and direct numerous projects along with starting another two business, The Green House Grocer and Chocolate Mmmms. With a residency at the University of Johannesburg and a new partnership with BASA (Business & Arts South Africa) his journey in becoming a mentor and facilitator in the creative industry began. Michael's need to change and evolve the South African creative industry remains his primary and ongoing ambition.
Adam Cox is joined by Will Fugard, the CEO of Fairtrade soft drink producer Gusto Organic, to discuss what Fairtrade is and what the movement is designed to achieve. They look at what some of the consequences can be for producers when consumers choose not to buy Fairtrade, and who exactly benefits from the Fairtrade movement. Will explains what makes Gusto Organic fairtrade and how the brand works ethically to ensure those in their supply chain benefit.
Change Your Stance Change Your Pain • Devon Fugard-Gous by Rivers Ballito
We often forget that we're the reason we find ourselves in the place we're in, we forgot that we got ourselves here. In this episode Ps Devon teaches us about 10 gates that we need to rebuild and protect in our lives so that we can live in the life God has called us to.
Fine Music Radio — Rodney Trudgeon’s guest on this week’s edition of People of Note is the distinguished South African actor JOHN KANI. John’s extraordinary career has led to countless awards and honours both locally and internationally and in 2015 the Market Theatre in Johannesburg re-named their main theatre the John Kani Theatre. In 2004 John Kani was voted as among the Top 100 Great South Africans. His latest play Kunene and the King – a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre – has just completed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed season at the Fugard with Sir Anthony Sher starring opposite John.
In this episode Ps Devon talks about preparing for the battle and using what God has given us to intentionally prepare for what lies ahead of us. When we are intentional and don't make excuses, we can properly outwork our faith to fulfil God's plans and purposes for our lives.
Fine Music Radio — A show which is doing incredibly well here in Cape Town, and which has been extended to the 2 February 2020, is Kinky Boots at the Fugard. It has a Tony winning score by Cyndi Lauper and the book by four time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein and has played to sold out houses on Broadway. In the role of the drag queen Lola is the accomplished young South African EARL GREGORY who has been seen in many shows including Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Cats, Hair Spray, High School Musical and Hair among many other. Earl Gregory will be Rodney Trudgeon’s guest on People of Note this week.
In this episode Ps Devon teaches us that there is power and blessing in separation, often we find ourselves holding onto things when all we need to do is let go and separate ourselves.
In this episode Ps Devon teaches us about the importance of arresting the thieves of joy, how to arrest them and why we would need to arrest in order to live the life God has called us to live.
Theatre was an integral part of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Performers such as John Kani and Winston Ntshona, as well as playwrights such as Athol Fugard, created some of the most vital political theatre of the twentieth century. But what are we to make of such theatre when the immediate circumstances that led to its creation have passed? What is the enduring legacy of works such as Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, the international hit that stemmed from Kani, Ntshona, and Fugard’s collaboration?
Celebration of Steve Fugard Date: Wednesday 11 September
We often tend to think negatively of ourselves even though that's not how God sees us. In this episode Ps Devon shares with us about the hero that God put in us.
Fine Music Radio — Rodney Trudgeon’s guest on this week’s edition of People of Note is the distinguished South African actor JOHN KANI. John’s extraordinary career has led to countless awards and honours both locally and internationally and in 2015 the Market Theatre in Johannesburg re-named their main theatre the John Kani Theatre. In 2004 John Kani was voted as among the Top 100 Great South Africans. His latest play Kunene and the King – a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre – has just completed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed season at the Fugard with Sir Anthony Sher starring opposite John.
There is power in a no, not only when we say it but also when it is said to us. Ps Devon helps us understand how to navigate no's in our lives.
When The Specials released their new album Encore recently, their first new music with Terry Hall since the classic Ghost Town in 1981, it went straight to Number One. Nearly four decades on from their split, the Coventry band's lead singer Terry Hall discusses the new album and how he found himself back in the recording studio with his long-term collaborators Lynval Golding and Horace Panter after all these years.This year is the 25th anniversary of the first universal democratic elections in South Africa which resulted in Nelson Mandela becoming President of the new rainbow nation. Athol Fugard's plays dramatise the injustices of apartheid and were part of the struggle that led to those elections. Now two of his plays are about to open in the UK, 1961's Blood Knot, and, A Lesson, which was first performed in 1978. Directors Janet Suzman and Matthew Xia discuss the importance of Fugard and how, 25 years after the end of apartheid, his plays speak to us today. As the National Gallery's newly acquired self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi begins a grand tour of the UK starting at the Glasgow Women's Library, curator Letizia Treves discusses the significance of this early 17th Century painting and Gentileschi's extraordinary career as one of the leading artists of the Baroque. Music journalist Dorian Lynskey looks at the life of Keith Flint, lead singer of dance band The Prodigy.Presenter, John Wilson Producer, Dymphna Flynn
Title: Becoming: The art of Celebration Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: 23 December 2018
Title: Potential: Making space in our cup Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: 22 July 2018
Title: Cultivating Compassion Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: 29 April 2018
Title:Where is your focus Speaker:Elaine Fugard Date: 17 December 2017
The Nobel-prize winning novelist Edith Wharton once wrote, “There are two ways of spreading light—to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Mirrors—and candles, too—are both the set dressing and driving metaphor in two recently opened plays, stories in which indelible women stand center-stage to take a good hard look at their world, their choices, and their own naked souls. One was written in the 1970s in South Africa, the other just a few years ago in New York City. Beyond the shows’ mutual use of mirrors, and the fact that the central characters are women, they have little in common, other than this: if you get a chance, you should really try to see them both. The first, set in a tiny South African community in 1974, is Athol Fugard’s three-actor drama The Road to Mecca—now running at Main Stage West. The play was inspired by the life of artist Helen Martins, though Fugard’s script takes fictional flights of fancy as mystical and inventive as the cement sculptures of owls and camels and elongated wisemen that Martins fashioned and surrounded her tiny rural house with. Martins, played with bone-weary specificity by Laura Jorgenson, is a lapsed Christian, once driven by the need to create, now trapped in a difficult space, intensely feeling the encroaching darkness she once fought by filling her yard with strangely beautiful creatures. She crams the interior of her house with mirrors, mosaics and hundreds of candles. Frail and uncertain, Helen seriously considers leaving her house and moving to a church-run retirement home, a move that is strongly supported by her one-time minister, Marius, played by John Craven. Marius has secretly loved Helen for years, despite her frightening displays of pagan art making, and worries for her safety as she grows older, also worrying deeply about the state of her soul. Opposing her move from the house is Martin’s schoolteacher friend Elsa, Ilana Niernberger, a strong supporter of Martin and a fierce opponent of the church. Elsa has just arrived from the city in a state of deep sadness and barely controlled rage and heartbreak, the reasons for which take most of the play to reveal themselves. The resulting three-way showdown comes in gradually building waves leading to an affecting, fiercely hard-won moment of awareness and self-resolution. The set, with it’s mirrors, mosaics and suggestions of sculptures, was designed by director Elizabeth Craven and David Lear, and it’s a marvel, as much a character as everyone else in this powerful play, a marvelous, thoughtful, deeply complex and human examination of the power of light, outside and in. Mirrors are equally prominent in Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman comedy-drama Bad Dates, now running at Cinnabar Theater. Starring Jennifer King, and directed by Molly Noble, this is a ferociously funny rollercoaster of a show, about a hard-working New York restaurant manager and single-mother named Hayley, who tells her story as she prepares herself for a series of dates, few of which turn out the way she hopes. Observing her reflection as she tries on an array of outfits, King’s marvelously performed “long-night of the soul” includes hilarious descriptions of each date-gone-wrong, and much more. As Hayley tells the story—which in the second act takes us to some truly surprising and unexpected places—she gradually realizes that finding a person to love won’t happen until she finally figures out what she really wants, and who she really is. ‘Road to Mecca’ runs Thursday–Sunday, through February 21 at Main Stage West. Mainstagewest.com. ‘Bad Dates’ runs through February 21 at Cinnabar Theater, cinnabartheater.org
Title: The Compassion Vision Speaker: Steve & Elaine Fugard Date: Sunday 18th October 2015
Topic: Celebrating our volunteers Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: Sunday 24 May 2015
Title: Gods whispers Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: 26 October 2014
Title: Ephesians 4:1 - 16 Speaker: Elaine Fugard Date: 2 March 2014
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Athol Fugard in conversation with award-winning South African actors Janet Suzman and John Kani. Venue: Gulbenkian Theatre, St Cross Building, Oxford.
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Athol Fugard in conversation with award-winning South African actors Janet Suzman and John Kani. Venue: Gulbenkian Theatre, St Cross Building, Oxford.
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Humanitas Inaugural Keynote Lecture - Athol Fugard: "Defining Moments" - in his life and work. Venue: Simpkins Lee Lecture Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Athol Fugard in conversation with playwrights Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem) and Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Her Naked Skin). Venue: Simpkins Lee Lecture Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Humanitas Inaugural Keynote Lecture - Athol Fugard: "Defining Moments" - in his life and work. Venue: Simpkins Lee Lecture Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Humanitas - Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Athol Fugard in conversation with playwrights Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem) and Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Her Naked Skin). Venue: Simpkins Lee Lecture Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.