“People have begun to ask in the past couple of years whether my storytelling has shifted from the political to the personal”, Fugard muses.

The overlapping boundaries between autobiography and fictional storytelling are further explored in Fourie’s introductory scene, which, with recourse to Fugard’s notebooks, places extracts from his personal observations of the past 50 years into his character, Oupa’s, mouth. Inspired by Fugard’s relationship with his own grandson, Gavyn, this intimate play has deep autobiographical roots. It is also a play about love, as Fugard notes, “This is the most naked statement I have ever made about that mysterious emotion.” In this play, Fugard continues to explore the nooks and crannies of the human heart with wry humour and pathos, always bringing his characteristic warmth to its situations and characters. During the course of one afternoon spent together, Oupa and Boba leap across a generational divide to teach and be taught, and to be reminded that the transient beauty of the world is seen too briefly through unassuming eyes. In The Shadow of the Hummingbird, Fugard takes on the role of Oupa, a retired South African teacher living in self-imposed exile in Southern California, and is joined onstage by Baker, playing his grandson, Boba. Besides Fugard, the artistic team includes Fourie (co-director), Mannie Manim (lighting), Saul Radomsky (sets & costume) and James Webb (Sound). The South African premiere of The Shadow of the Hummingbird, starring Athol Fugard, is at the Fugard Theatre in July 2014.Įric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre present the South African premiere of The Shadow of the Hummingbird, written by, starring and directed by Athol Fugard, with an introductory scene by Paula Fourie.įollowing his recent South African premieres at the Fugard Theatre, including The Train Driver (2010), The Bird Watchers (2011), The Blue Iris (2012) and Die Laaste Karretjiegraf (2012), and the World premieres of the Afrikaans productions of Die Kaptein se Tier (2011) and Playland (2014), Fugard returns to the stage in his 82nd year to continue his relationship with the Cape Town theatre that bears his name.įugard, who returns to the stage this year after an absence of 15 years, plays opposite Marviantos Baker in this intimate, delicate two-hander.

Athol fugard biography