Fountain Theatre mourns the loss of long-time friend and acclaimed playwright, Athol Fugard | Intimate Excellent

/

by Terri Roberts

Director Stephen Sachs (left) with playwright Athol Fugard (center) and the cast of the Fountain’s 2012 production of The Blue Iris (L to R): Jacqueline Schultz, Julanne Chidi Hill, and Morlan Higgins

On March 8th, celebrated South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director, Athol Fugard, who was also a long-time friend and supporter of the Fountain Theatre, died at age 92 at his home in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa. According to his wife, Paula, Fugard died after a cardiac event.

Fugard’s astonishing work has been recognized with countless awards over the decades, including an Obie for Best Foreign Play in 1971 (Boseman and Lena); an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 (Tsotsi, adapted from his novel); a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2011; and the Japan Art Association’s Premium Imperiale prize for theatre/film in 2014.

In 2000, the prolific writer/activist was living in Del Mar and teaching at UC San Diego when he learned that an exemplary production of his 1984 drama, The Road to Mecca, was playing at the intimate Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. “I’ve always been wary of seeing plays of mine I myself hadn’t directed,” he admitted to Julio Martinez in a 2012 telephone interview for LA Stage Times. “Eventually, I went to Los Angeles and saw this marvelous production, staged by Stephen (Sachs). I met Stephen and I met the cast of that production and found myself saying to Stephen, ‘I want my next play to be done in your theatre.’ I loved the feel of it. Everything about it felt right. — the theatre, the size of the space, the atmosphere. So when my next play was ready, I brought it to Stephen.”

That visit launched what would become a long collaborative relationship with Sachs and the Fountain that ultimately resulted in six more of Fugard’s works being presented at the theatre. The 2000 Los Angeles Premiere of The Road to Mecca was followed by Exits and Entrances (World Premiere, 2004); Coming Home (West Coast Premiere, 2009); The Train Driver (US Premiere, 2010); The Blue Iris (US Premiere, 2012); Victory (US Premiere, 2013); and The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (West Coast Premiere, 2015.)

  • Athol Fugard
  • The Blue Iris cast: Jacqueline Schultz, Julanne Chidi Hill, playwright Athol Fugard, Morlan Higgins
  • Jacqueline Schultz, Julanne Chidi Hill, Athol Fugard, Morlan Higgins
  • Jacqueline Schultz, Julanne Chidi Hill, Atholl Fugard, Morlan Higgins
  • Athol Fugard, Morlan Higgins
  • Director Stephen Sachs, Athol Fugard
  • Director Stephen Sachs, Jacqueline Schultz, Athol Fugard, Julanne Chidi Hill, Morlan Higgins
  • Deborah Lawlor, Athol Fugard, The Blue Iris director Stephen Sachs, production stage manager Terri Roberts

According to Sachs, “…the search for hope, the struggle with loss, and the fight for dignity” are classic Fugard themes–and they are all showcased in The Blue Iris, which Sachs directed at the Fountain in 2013. The Blue Iris is a three-hander that revolves around a grieving farmer, Robert (Morlan Higgins), mourning both the loss of his farm in a fire as well as the death of his wife, Sally, (Jacqueline Schultz) soon thereafter. Their housekeeper, Rieta (Julanne Chidi Hill), wants to move on from all the devastation and throughout the one-act play she encourages Robert to join her.

During the run of Blue Iris, Fugard paid a memorable visit to the Fountain to both see the show and participate in a special post-show audience talk back with the cast and Sachs. It was a remarkable afternoon in the presence of a legendary artist. (See slideshow photos above from that event.)

In response to the loss of of his friend and colleague, Sachs posted the following on his personal Facebook page:

“Athol Fugard lived a long and vigorous life of monumental achievement, reaching the age of 92. We knew the horizon was edging closer. Even so, his passing leaves an enormous hole in my heart. His artistic trust, his integrity, humanity, and his example as a socially and politically conscious theater-maker had a profound impact on my life. Athol blessed me with twelve years of theatrical heaven, trusting me to direct the premieres of his new plays at the Fountain, Off-Broadway, and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Those were charmed years for us all — those of us who worked alongside him and the audiences who were transformed by his plays on the stage. By that time, his work explored themes of hope and mortality, the role of the artist, the emotional toll of guilt and regret, and the responsibility we hold for each other. The plays were beautiful and challenging and brought with them some of the most vivid and rewarding moments of my theater career. I honor and celebrate this great man, this colossus, this titan of world theater, and my mentor and friend.”

In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times discussing the Fountain’s US Premiere of The Train Driver, Fugard described that play as the most significant of his half-century career.

“I think all of my writing life lead up to the writing of The Train Driver,” he said in the same article, “because it deals with my own inherited blindness and guilt and all of what being a white South African in South Africa during those apartheid years meant.”

Fugard also had high praise for the theatre that became his artistic home-away-from-home, and the audiences it attracts: “People come to the Fountain Theatre because they’ve got hearts that are working and they’ve got heads that are working. They use the Fountain Theatre because it puts them in touch with the world that they’re living in.”

This entry was posted in Athol Fugard, Coming Home, Drama, Exits and Entrances, Fountain Theatre, new plays, performing arts, plays, playwright, playwriting, South Africa, stage, The Blue Iris, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, The Road to Mecca, The Train Driver and tagged Athol Fugard, Fountain Theatre, Jacqueline Schultz, Julanne Chidi Hill, Julio Martinez, Los Angeles, Morlan Higgins, new plays, performing arts, plays, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, UC San Diego. Bookmark the permalink.