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The apprenticeship years - Athol Fugard Issue
Twentieth Century Literature, Winter, 1993 by Sheila Fugard
The play had three main characters: the young black woman, a male militant black activist, and an older black woman. Athol wrote the play in verse, and included a small chorus, who commented on events. It was an ambitious one-act play, and was surely influenced by the avant-garde writings of the thirties. (The plays of Auden and Isherwood were performed in student productions at the Little Theatre in Cape Town, and when Athol was a student at Cape Town University he played a small role in a production of their verse play, Ascent of F6.) One must remember that Athol, in his twenties, considered himself a poet and wrote accomplished verse. He also experimented with prose, including short stories. Yet it was dialogue and theatre that fascinated and challenged him. Already The Cell had the elements that would combine in the creation of the later Fugard plays: the social tragedy of South Africa, viewed and interpreted by a poet.
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Our only resources were the text and ourselves. I was recently out of drama school, while Athol had directed plays in his teens, when he was a student at the Technical College of Port Elizabeth. Though our means were limited, we rented the Labia Theatre for a Sunday night, a day when the house was usually dark. (I think the fee for the theatre was forty pounds, and this included the services of a lighting technician as well as stage hands.)
I took on the job of directing. I think my claim was based on my greater experience in theatre. Anyway, Athol agreed. Because the play was in verse, and the language classical, I felt free to stylize the production. In fact, we had so little money it was the only option open to me. We ourselves acted. I was the older black woman, while Athol took on the role of the militant black activist. Erica Rogers played the dramatic role of the woman who gave birth to the stillborn baby. Erica was about twenty years old, good-natured, and enthusiastic. She later went on to become a well-known South African actress. We were simply dressed in drapes, and did not attempt to present ourselves as black. I was unaware of any black actors in the fifties, though there was the occasional variety show where black singers and dancers appeared before white audiences.
Rehearsals proceeded. On occasion Athol and I engaged in noisy altercations in which he disputed my directing decisions. However, I did not yield to his pressures; I felt our disagreements stemmed from his lack of experience. My production was quite simple. With no money for a set or costumes, I took advantage of the rostrums provided by the theatre to elevate our chorus of three men, so their presence would suggest a lofty dignity. I then lit the different areas of the stage to suggest the cells of the three main characters. When the young woman spoke, she was visible, while the other two characters remained in the shadows. The chorus members were detached from the action, and were allowed sufficient space for their pronouncements. I did attempt to Africanize the chorus, and Athol helped me make papier-mache masks, which we diligently baked in our kitchen oven until they set hard.
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