South African Playwright and Theatre Legend Athol Fugard Dies Aged 92

South African playwright, actor and director Athol Fugard died at home in Stellenbosch on Sunday. He was 92 years old.

Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard was born in June 1932 in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape. He attended school at the Marist Brothers College in Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha and later studied at the University of Cape Town.

In 1956, Fugard and his then wife Sheila Meiring founded the Circle Players. The couple later moved to Johannesburg, where he was working as a court clerk in Johannesburg in 1958.

His citation for the Order of Ikhamanga stated: "He became increasingly aware of apartheid's injustice. This was to become the background to most of his work, although he has never been merely a polemicist but is, rather, a keen observer of people and their problems with society. Fugard, who is often compared with Tennessee Williams, once said that in his own case, his 'real territory as a dramatist is the world of secrets with their powerful effect on human behaviour and the trauma of their revelation"'.

Fugard's early work included The Blood Knot, which was produced for the stage in..