![]() ![]() Sizwe says his name is Robert Zwelinzima. Sizwe asks to have his picture taken, but when Styles asks him for his deposit and name, Sizwe hesitates. His musings are interrupted when a customer, Sizwe Bansi, arrives. Styles continues to read the paper and talks about his photography studio. After reading a newspaper article on an automobile plant, Styles tells a humorous story to the audience about an incident that occurred when he worked at Ford Motor Company. The studio is located in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Sizwe Bansi Is Dead opens in the photography studio of a man named Styles. Today, he splits his time between the United States and South Africa. In 1999, Fugard wrote The Captain’s Tiger, which explores some of his early writing experiences. Widely acclaimed, this play was representative of Fugard’s autobiographical period, which continued into the 1990s. In the early 1980s Fugard became associated with the Yale School of Drama, which hosted the first production of Master Harold and the Boys. The best-known result was Siswe Bansi is Dead(1972). In the early 1970s Fugard experimented with developing scripts in improvisational theater format. Performed both Off-Broadway and in London, the play garnered international praise. In 1967 Fugard’s passport was withdrawn by the South African government (it was returned in 1971), yet he continued to write plays exploring the implications of apartheid in South Africa.ĭuring this time period, Fugard wrote his most successful play, Boesman and Lena(1960). On account of this success, several members of the company were arrested. After some initial reluctance, Fugard formed the Serpent Company, which became the first successful nonwhite theater company in South Africa. ![]() In 1962 five Xhosa tribesmen approached Fugard wanting to start a theater company. Within a year, they returned to South Africa and he wrote the first of his so-called “Port Elizabeth plays,” The Blood Knot. In 1959 he and his wife went to London to gain more theatrical experience. This experience inspired his first play, No- Good Friday, which was performed privately for white audiences. He also became friends with black people and saw their living conditions. There, Fugard saw racial injustice firsthand. In 1958 he took a job as a clerk with a local court to support his family. They formed the Circle Players in Johannesburg. Fugard wanted to be a novelist-indeed he finished a manuscript-but watching his wife audition for plays, Fugard became interested in the theater too. When he returned to South Africa in 1956, he met and married Sheila Meiring, an actress. Fugard was the only white crew member on the ship for two years, an experience that eliminated his racial prejudice. In the middle of his senior year, he dropped out of college and became a sailor. Fugard attended the University of Cape Town on a scholarship, where he studied philosophy and social anthropology. Growing up, Fugard was keenly aware of the racial divisions in the city and their economic and social consequences. When Fugard was three years old his family moved to the diverse city AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYįugard was born in Middleburg, Cape Province, South Africa, on June 11, 1932. Critics and scholars have also observed that Sizwe Bansi Is Dead contains elements of absurdism, especially its sparse setting and surreal subject matter. Although these restrictions are specifically South African, critics have noted that the play’s greater theme of identity is universal. In court, Fugard saw the repercussions of this law: blacks were sent to jail at an alarming rate. At that time it was required that every black and colored citizen over the age of sixteen carried an identity book that restricted employment and travel within in the country. The genesis of Sizwe Bansi Is Dead can be traced to Fugard’s experiences as a law clerk at the Native Commissioner’s Court in Johannesburg. The play made its British debut a year or so later and won The London Theatre Critics award for the best play of 1974. It made its debut on October 8, 1972, in Cape Town, South Africa. Sizwe Bansi Is Dead was written in collaboration with two African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. ![]()
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