Sorrows and Rejoicings

by Athol Fugard

"If there is a more urgent and indispensible playwright in world theatre than South Africa's Athol Fugard, I don't know who it could be."—Jack Kroll, Newsweek One of the true contemporary masters of the stage, South African playwright Athol Fugard has written one of his most stunning works. Sorrows and Rejoicings explores the legacy of Apartheid on two women—one white, the other black—who on the surface seem to have little in common except for their love of one man, a white poet who is attached to the Karoo land of South Africa. The drama moves between past and present, reliving the poet's despondent years in exile and his eventual return to a new South Africa. With lyrical grace, Fugard once again demonstrates the human struggle to transcend the treacherous injustices of history. South African playwright, actor and director, Athol Fugard is one of the world's leading theatre artists, of whom The New Yorker has said, "A rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize on Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize." Also available by Athol The Road to Mecca PB $11.95 0-930452-79-8 • USA My Children! My Africa! PB $10.95 1-55936-014-3 o USA Statements PB $10.95 0-930452-61-5 • USA Blood Knot and Other Plays PB $ 14.95 1-55936-020-8 • USA Valley Song PB $10.95 1-55936-119-0 • USA

Genres: Plays, Drama, Africa

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Athol Fugard was a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. Acclaimed in 1985 as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world" by Time, he published more than thirty plays. He was best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid, some of which have been adapted to film. His novel Tsotsi was adapted as a film of the same name, which won an Academy Award in 2005. It was directed by Gavin Hood.
Fugard also served as an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego.
Fugard received many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver from the government of South Africa in 2005 "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre". He was also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Fugard was honoured in Cape Town with the opening in 2010 of the Fugard Theatre in District Six. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.

Reviews

[Mary Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this play as part of a summer reading challenge. I really enjoyed it!
I know next to nothing about South Africa. It's shameful really. I think the little I know about Nelson Mandela was from a book I read in the fifth grade. I was pretty excited when they mentioned him. I finally felt like I wasn't 100% ignorant.
Jim gave me a whole stack of books written by authors from Africa. I need to take a class about literature from Africa, because there really is so much I didn't understand. It's amazing how giant that continent is, and how little we cover in world history. This book piqued my interest, and I hope I get a chance to learn more.
I'll be honest though, it probably won't happen unless I take a class- because I am just not that motivated of a person. SO SAD! (As Donald Trump would say- except he wouldn't say it about that- because I don't think he cares about Africa at all....cause he is a horrible person...)

[mengwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent. that was excellent.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A play by Fugard set in one room of a house in the Karoo (a part of the South African veldt) in early 2000. The living characters have just returned to Dawid Olivier's home, following his funeral. Allison is Dawid's widow, English, about forty years old, who lives in London; Marta is his coloured lover, about the same age, and has lived in the house with their daughter, Rebecca, now seventeen. We learn that Dawid has died a few weeks after returning from a sixteen year exile in London. The one act play reveals what happened in the past, and the relations between Olivier and the three women. (He also appears in flashbacks.) In the background, of course, is the apartheid regime in South Africa, which has only recently ended. A short play but with much content.

[Nancy Mcdaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful play by Athol Fugard about two women, one white, one "coloured" who loved the same Afrikaaner man. Their interaction after his death is poignant and unexpected. I would love to see this play performed some day.