His Next Act: Driving Out Apartheid’s Ghost
Athol Fugard, the renowned South African playwright, paced at the edge of a plywood stage, rubbing his head and listening intensely to two actors run through their lines. Rehearsals for his new play, “The Train Driver,” had begun.
With stents in his arteries and his hearing fading, Mr. Fugard, 77, is back telling stories shaped by South Africa’s tormented racial history. But for the first time, a drama by this grand old man of the South African stage will have its premiere at the Fugard, a new theater named in his honor.
The Fugard is among many privately organized efforts — in culture, education and social services — that aim to help South Africa overcome the damage wrought by its colonial and apartheid-era past. The theater’s creators hope the transfiguring power of art will help change this breathtakingly beautiful, but still highly segregated, city by the sea.
The theater had its gala opening last month on the fringes of District Six, an area with particular resonance here. In 1966, the district was designated for whites only and its mostly mixed-race (as they were classified) residents were forced out and their homes bulldozed as part of the white minority government’s apartheid scheme.