Athol Fugard Obituary

South African playwright whose work dealt with the injustices and absurdities of the apartheid era Apartheid in South Africa cut both ways. The white Afrikaner playwright Athol Fugard, who has died aged 92, was not allowed inside a black township in his home country for many years, so was heavily reliant on black actors keeping him informed on how life was and wasnt for them and their families. His collaboration with two of them, John Kani and , from the township of New Brighton near Fugards home in Port Elizabeth, in the early 1970s, resulted in three extraordinary plays they dealt with the injustices and absurdities of the apartheid era in profoundly moving dramas of great eloquence and dignity of spirit.