Fugard, Athol (Harold Lannigan) (1932– )

South African dramatist, director, and actor. He has written more than 20 plays, many of which deal with the effects of apartheid. Among his most explicitly political plays are a trilogy published as Statements: Three Plays in 1974. Other plays include Boesman and Lena (1969; filmed in 1974), the autobiographical ‘Master Harold’... and the Boys (1982), and My Children! My Africa! (1989).

His first successful play was The Blood Knot (1961), which was produced in London, England, and New York City. In 1967 he formed the non-racial Serpent Players in New Brighton, a black township of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in defiance of apartheid laws that forbade blacks and whites to perform together in public. Plays from this period are collected together in The Township Plays (1993). Fugard has appeared in several films, including Gandhi (1982), The Killing Fields (1984), and The Road to Mecca (1992). He has also published one novel, Tsotsi (1980).