Works

Fugard could be described as sacrificing characters for symbolism, but, “He began a more imagist approach to drama, not using any prior script but merely giving actors what he called ‘a mandate’ to work around ‘a cluster of images’” (Britannica). His plays were problem plays bearing the players and influences of South Africa.  Blood Knot (1961) was the play that really thrust Fugard into the international Spotlight. “The Blood Knot, dealing with brothers who fall on opposite sides of the racial colour line, was the first in a sequence Fugard called “The Family Trilogy.” The series continued with Hello and Goodbye (1965) and Boesman and Lena (1969) and was later published under the title Three Port Elizabeth Plays (1974)” (Britannica). Another three plays were linked together in a collection called Statements. These included Statements after an Arrest under the Immortality Act, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island all produced in 1972. 

Buckley is quoted in Davis saying the plays included in Statements “are an effective indictment of the inhumanity of authoritarian regimes through a compassionate, humorous examination of the everyday lives of totally credible people.” “The improvisational workshop collaboration with Ntshona and Kani has been regarded by critics as a radical attempt – both in terms of form and politics — to blur authorial boundaries and cross racial divisions. Gray is also cited in Davis for describing  “Sizwe Bansi and The Island as experimental attempts to create new South African theatre, describing them as ‘impromptu inventiveness” 

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