“Equus” by Peter Shaffer Essay Example

spirit and mind can be, when the time calls for persistence and everlasting hope.

How did the Brutality of Apartheid Affect the Theatrical Development of Athol Fugard with Special Reference to "The Island"?

"Apartheid", is the official name given to a political system, which is based upon racial discrimination. Obviously, people that live in an area where apartheid has been instated, are greatly affected, and naturally have different views to those that we have in the West. In 1948, South Africa was divided, however, it is widely known that the culture of apartheid had been present for many years before it was officially installed.

In 1948, the all white National Party (founded in 1914) came to power. For year's segregation and inequality between races had existed as a matter of custom and practice in South Africa, now it became a law. The legislative National Party wanted to separate the different races. The white minority feared they would be overwhelmed both numerically and politically by the black majority. They considered South Africa to be their own land, as they had built it1, and did not want to be chased by a growing majority.

As a result, the policy of apartheid was drawn up built upon four main aims:

* The population of South Africa was divided into four racial groups: -White, Colored, Asian and Black. Obviously, each had their own culture.

* Whites, (as the civilized race), were entitled to have absolute power over the State.

* White interests were considered more important then black interests; the State was not committed to providing equal living conditions to the "lesser races".

* The white racial group formed a single nation, with Afrikaans and English speakers.

Africa belonged to several2 distinct nations or potential nations.

This effectively made the white nation the largest in the country. It also gave black people an even worse standard of living than they had enjoyed before. The segregation implied that Whites were more important then Asians, Coloreds and Blacks; Asian people were more important than Coloreds and Blacks and so on.4 Only white people could vote, hold public office, enroll in the armed forces, or represent the country in international affairs, including sports competitions.

During the 1950s, while the South African government passed and implemented oppressive apartheid laws, Black South Africans responded by intensifying their political opposition and the African National Congress (A.N.C) dramatically increased in size. Although the membership of the A.N.C was mainly black, it was a multi-racial organization with white and Asian members, some of whom had leadership positions.

The Blacks were made to live in designated areas of the city, called "Townships" where they were not allowed to mix with the Colored and Asians of other townships.5 Outside of the city, each tribe was assigned a territory where they were supposed to be independent. These territories were called "Bantustans".6 Each tribe's assigned territories were empty lots with no infrastructure, no qualified professionals, no school, and no money.

The Blacks made up 70% of the population, but only 7% of the land was assigned to the Bantustans7. The conditions black South Africans were forced to live in were so terrible; they have been likened to concentration camps. For example, the houses, (which were built by the government and rented to the blacks) were horrible one-bedroom accommodations with external toilets where between twelve to fifteen people were

made to live.

The Whites had a completely contrasting way of life. Because the Blacks, Colored and Asians had been confined to such small areas of land, the White population was able to thrive! The land that was designated to the white people was fertile and plentiful. They had the right to be educated, and as a result, were able to continue further education at university. Due to the segregation laws, Blacks, Coloreds and Asians, were not entitled to these rights, and consequently, were not as wealthy as their white neighbors.

Athol Fugard was born in Middelburg, South Africa in 1932. His full name is Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard and as a child he was known as Hally before he decided he wanted to be called Athol. He is white with English and Afrikaner parents. He was brought up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with English as his mother tongue. He describes himself as an Afrikaner writing in English.

After some acting experience he started writing plays, usually set in South Africa and steeped in the politics of the day. However the politics never affected his insight into people. Like Tennessee Williams8, Fugard creates characters with strengths and weaknesses, which make them unable to fit into what society requires, and like Williams the plays often have dominant women.

Fugard started writing in the late 1950s, with a group of actors from Johannesburg who were influenced by Strasberg's method acting. To begin with, Fugard's first play, "No-Good Friday" was performed only in townships in South Africa, and was moderately successful. It was first performed on 30th August 1958 at the Bantu Men's Social Center in Johannesburg. It was not until

6th November 1974 that this play was performed outside of Africa in Sheffield, England. His second play, "The Blood Knot" was an international success, and eventually led to his passport being taken away.

Although he was just sixteen years old when apartheid was instigated, Fugard took a great interest in the developments of segregation and separation. In 1950, the Group Areas Act was passed, specifying, amongst other things, that separate areas would be reserved for each of the four main racial groups.

The different environment that blacks were forced to live in, was shown to Fugard in 1958. He had moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg in an attempt to start a new career as a writer and, although he always knew about the townships, he had never encountered them first hand. They had always been forbidden and closed to him, as he was white. However, this was about to change. As Fugard himself puts it, he was "challenged out of my white complacency" when he first visited Sophiatown9. The government had targeted this township for destruction, as it was believed to be situated "too close for comfort to white Johannesburg". As a result it had become a source of political activity. One evening, Fugard and his wife were taken on a drive to Sophiatown, where political resistances to the forced removals, carried out by the government, were being monitored. This was the first encounter with a black township, Fugard had ever had, and it affected him greatly.

"We found ourselves in a world of vibrant defiant life, made all the more so by the poverty in which most of its inhabitants lived. And, possibly more important from

my point of view, it was also Johannesburg's black bohemia10." 11

Fugard made several important friendships in this shantytown. People like Bloke Modisane12 and Can Themba13 became amongst Fugard's closest acquaintances. It was with these friends that Fugard formed his first of two drama groups, "Actors' Studio".

In an attempt to portray the poverty imposed on blacks, Athol Fugard released "No-Good Friday". In this play, Fugard recognizes and highlights that to be black is to be poor, and that black existence is a constant struggle to find an escape from the cycle of poverty and the terrible quality of life imposed upon them. In this play, a well-meaning white cleric14 suggests that Black problems are no different from White problems. Needless to say, this play was extremely risky to perform, as Fugard was breaking the law by suggesting that white people were no better then blacks, but were in fact equal. With this performance, Fugard began to make a name for himself as a "serious playwright who has often dared to challenge the social system of his country and the ways whites, blacks, Asians and colored think of race; and who has expanded our horizons about the nature of human psychodynamics."15

His second play, "Nongogo" was staged ten years after the 1948 initiation of apartheid. This was the first play of many, which provided an insight into the devastating progress the apartheid took, and some of the reasons for its eventual downfall.

A second township, ("New Brighton", on the outskirts of "Port Elizabeth") was formed five years later, after he had written "Blood Knot16". Back in Port Elizabeth, five people approached Fugard from the township17. They had read about

his success with "Blood Knot" and had come to ask him to help them start up a drama group. With some reluctance, Fugard agreed, and "Serpent Players" was formed. Fugard continued to write plays that had huge impacts on the South African theatre scene. It was the first time black actors and plays about township life were allowed to be performed.

The area of apartheid, which fascinated Fugard the most, was that of imprisonment of political prisoners. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established the first permanent settlement by Europeans in South Africa, in Cape Town. Riebeeck discovered Robben Island, which is situated just twelve kilometres off the Cape Town coast. He decided to use it, as a place of banishment, built a prison, and sent exiles and slaves to dig out the white stone found there. From then on, the various governors of the Cape found the Island very useful for exiling unwanted people. The reason this particular island was used is because the climate extremes were so great and also it was almost completely inaccessible18. In summer the heat is intensified by the salt air, sparse vegetation and lack of shade. In wintertime, it is very damp, and usually attacked by sea storms and thick fog.

Ironically, in 1846, the prison was transformed into a hospital! In 1855 parts of the hospital was converted into a colony for people with leprosy and a mental institution, and another part was converted back into a prison. The hospital closed in 1931 when the League of Nations Health Organisation declared that lepers did not need to be kept so isolated from other people. During the Second World War19, defences

were built on the island to protect South Africa against Germany and these were later used as a navy training centre. The island was also used as a station to refuel ships travelling around the cape, following the closure of the Suez Canal.

In 1959, a maximum-security prison was built on Robben Island. Between 1961 and 1991, over three thousand men were imprisoned here as political prisoners. At first, this prison would only contain convicted criminal offenders as well as "politicals"20. The most famous inmate ever held at this prison, was Nelson Mandela, from 1962 until 1990, a total of 28 years.

All the inmates at Robben Island were black, and all the wardens were white. The prison had a capacity of six hundred and fifty prisoners. It was divided into sections, some with single cells, others containing larger communal cells. Following the Soweto rising in June 1976,21 a fourth section was created to cope with the large influx of new prisoners. High walls and fences divided each section. The walls and fences in the isolation section were much taller, and this area contained the older men.

Most prisoners were allowed to receive only two letters a year, and two visits, (though most received none, due to the islands inaccessibility). No radio sets or newspapers were allowed, and all reading matter was strictly censored. To help make time pass more quickly, the prisoners organised shows for each other, including songs, poems, and of course the two-man version of Antigone. However, each of these performances was illegal, and the prisoners were not allowed to applaud. To overcome this, and still be able to show their appreciation to the other

inmates, they would "brush" or run their hands together instead.

During the mid and late 1960s, frequent acts of brutality took place. It was these that influenced Athol Fugard's writing of the play. Stone-breaking, collecting seaweed, and work in the lime quarry were the main occupations. Several prisoners developed tuberculosis; some died as a result of inadequate or no treatment for their ailments. International pressure led to some improvements in these conditions, until finally, a decision to close Robben Island was made. This was a huge turning point in Black history, as the island had become a symbol of White South African tyranny, and indeed a theme in modern South African literature.

On the second of July 1973, "The Island" was performed for the first time, under the title, "The Hodoshe Span", at "The Space" in Cape Town. It was later revealed, in an interview with one of the actors, John Kani, that it could not at first be called "The Island", as the authorities would have immediately known that the reference was to Robben Island. "The Hodoshe" means the green carrion fly. This title was decided, as Kani's brother spent five years on the Island, and apparently there was an infamous warden who was referred to as "the fly that brings death". The play was an instant success, and showed the struggles and hardships of life on an island prison, by following two prisoners in their everyday tasks.

Fugard wrote "The Island" to bring to people's attention the terrible conditions, black prisoners were made to live and work in. Fugard studied the history and stories from Robben Island, and decided he would write a play to expose

the truth that so many people refused to acceptor acknowledge.

The story itself is easy enough to understand. It follows John and Winston, (two prisoners); through their working day and then the time they spend in their own cell. The opening is described by Peter Brook as "a mime of grunts and effort, of repetition and of physical exertion." The mime itself last roughly ten minutes, and is extremely powerful. There is no sound, other then the shovel scraping across the stage, and the wheelbarrows being wheeled from one side of the stage to the other. This is a pointless task, and because both men are at either side of the stage, the sand gets transported from one end to the other, making it endless.