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Lyttelton; Young Vic, London; Chichester Festival theatreAthol Fugard’s masterly apartheid drama still shocks, while compatriot Yaël Farber is transfixed by Marina Carr’s lyrical Irish Lorca. Plus, a tragically stately MacbethDo we seek any solace or answers when we look back on the divisions of another country? For the second time this year, a major institution takes on apartheid-era South Africa: its circumstances and its legacy. The RSC recently announced that John Kani’s incisive play Kunene and the King, reflecting on his country 25 years after its first democratic election, is to transfer to the West End. In the meantime, here is a report from the heart of apartheid.
Athol Fugard, one of the most celebrated of the era’s dramatists, has described “Master Harold”… and the boys, first put on in 1982 but set in 1950, as the “most intensely personal” of his works. It’s a small-scale drama – three actors in one room for 90 minutes – with a long political reach, and is meticulously directed at the National by Roy Alexander Weise, who next month becomes (with Bryony Shanahan) the co-artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester. Continue reading...