After Blood Knot, was produced in England, his passport was withdrawn for four years. In order to avoid prosecution, he started to take his plays overseas. The political slant of his plays bought him into conflict with the government. Returning to Port Elizabeth in the early 1960s, he worked with a group of actors whose first performance was in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name The Serpent Players.

Working with a group of black actors (including Zakes Mokae), Fugard wrote his first play No Good Friday. Working in the court environment and seeing how the Africans suffered under the pass laws provided Fugard with a firsthand insight into the injustice and pain of apartheid. They started the Serpent Players in Port Elizabeth before moving to Johannesburg where he was employed as a court clerk. She later became a novelist and poet in her own right. He sailed around the world working on ships (mainly in the Far East).įugard married Sheila Meiring, now known as Sheila Fugard, then an actress in one of his plays, in September 1956. He then enrolled in the University of Cape Town but dropped out. After being awarded a scholarship, he enrolled at the local technical college for his secondary education.

In 1938, he was enrolled at the Marist Brothers College - a Catholic primary school (although he is not known to be a Roman Catholic). His family moved to Port Elizabeth soon after he was born. He considers himself an Afrikaner, but writes in English to reach a larger audience. His wife, Sheila Fugard, and their daughter, Lisa Fugard, are also writers.Īthol Fugard was born of an Irish Roman Catholic father and an Afrikaner mother. June 11, 1932, Middelburg, South Africa), better known as Athol Fugard, is a South African playwright, actor, and director.

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