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    Sorrows and Rejoicings
    Sorrows and Rejoicings
    Sorrows and Rejoicings
    Ebook65 pages2 hours

    Sorrows and Rejoicings

    By Athol Fugard

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    About this ebook

    "If there is a more urgent and indispensible playwright in world theatre than South Africa's Athol Fugard, I don't know who it could be."—Jack Kroll, Newsweek

    One of the true contemporary masters of the stage, South African playwright Athol Fugard has written one of his most stunning works. Sorrows and Rejoicings explores the legacy of Apartheid on two women—one white, the other black—who on the surface seem to have little in common except for their love of one man, a white poet who is attached to the Karoo land of South Africa. The drama moves between past and present, reliving the poet's despondent years in exile and his eventual return to a new South Africa. With lyrical grace, Fugard once again demonstrates the human struggle to transcend the treacherous injustices of history.

    South African playwright, actor and director, Athol Fugard is one of the world's leading theatre artists, of whom The New Yorker has said, "A rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize on Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize."

    Also available by Athol Fugard:

    The Road to Mecca

    PB $11.95 0-930452-79-8 • USA

    My Children! My Africa!

    PB $10.95 1-55936-014-3 o USA

    Statements

    PB $10.95 0-930452-61-5 • USA

    Blood Knot and Other Plays

    PB $ 14.95 1-55936-020-8 • USA

    Valley Song

    PB $10.95 1-55936-119-0 • USA

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTheatre Communications Group
    Release dateNov 1, 2001
    ISBN9781559366939
    Sorrows and Rejoicings
    Author

    Athol Fugard

    Athol Fugard is a South African playwright and occasional director and actor who actively critized the Apartheid system through his work. He worked with actors such as Zakes Mokae and John Kani and soon gained international recognition for his plays. His fifty years of playwriting include The Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, Master Harold ... and the Boys, The Road to Mecca and The Train Driver. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2011. The film based on his novel, Tsotsi, won an Oscar for best foreign film.

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      Book preview

      Sorrows and Rejoicings - Athol Fugard

      SORROWS and REJOICINGS

      BOOKS BY ATHOL FUGARD

      AVAILABLE FROM TCG

      Blood Knot and Other Plays

      The Captain’s Tiger

      Cousins (a memoir)

      A Lesson from Aloes

      Marigolds in August and The Guest

      My Children! My Africa!

      Notebooks: 1960–1977

      Playland and A Place with the Pigs

      The Road to Mecca

      Statements

      Valley Song

      SORROWS and

      REJOICINGS

      ATHOL FUGARD

      THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

      NEW YORK

      Sorrows and Rejoicings is copyright © 2002 by Athol Fugard

      Sorrows and Rejoicings is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc. 355 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017-6603

      All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio of television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form of by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights including, but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is places on the question of readings and all uses of these plays by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the author’s representative: Samuel Liff, William Morris Agency, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, (212) 586-5100

      The author would like to acknowledge Professor Marianne McDonald of the University of California, San Diego, for her fine Ovid translations.

      Karoo photograph is reprinted by permission of Satour.

      This publication is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

      TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, 1045 Westgate Dr., St. Paul, MN 55114.

      LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

      Fugard, Athol.

      Sorrows and rejoicings / by Athol Fugard. — 1st ed.

      p. cm.

      eISBN 978-1-55936-693-9

      1. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Drama. 2. Women—South Africa—Drama. 3. Karoo (South Africa)—Drama. 4. Women, Black—Drama. 5. White women—Drama. 6. Exiles—Drama. 7. Poets—Drama. I. Title.

      PR 9369.3.F8 S67 2001

      CIP

      Cover photo by T. Charles Erickson

      Cover and text design by Lisa Govan

      First Edition, February 2002

      For my sisters

      Mary, Katrina and Dudu

      Contents

      Sorrows and Rejoicings

      Glossary

      PRODUCTION HISTORY

      Sorrows and Rejoicings received its world premiere in May 2001, at the McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ (Emily Mann, Artistic Director; Jeffrey Woodward, Managing Director). The production was directed by the playwright. Associate direction, set design and costume design was by Susan Hilferty and lighting design was by Dennis Parichy. The cast was as follows:

      In August 2001, Sorrows and Rejoicings was produced at the Baxter Theatre Centre (Mannie Manim, Director) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The production was directed by the playwright. Associate direction, set design and costume design was by Susan Hilferty and lighting design was by Mannie Manim. The cast was as follows:

      In February 2002, Sorrows and Rejoicings was produced at Second Stage Theatre in New York City (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Carol Fishman, Managing Director). The production was directed by the playwright. Associate direction, set design and costume design was by Susan Hilferty and lighting design was by Dennis Parichy. The cast was as follows:

      SORROWS and REJOICINGS

      CHARACTERS

      ALLISON OLIVIER, a white woman, forties

      MARTA BARENDS, a colored woman, forties

      REBECCA, Marta’s daughter, eighteen

      DAWID OLIVIER, the writer, a white man, fifties, and then younger

      TIME

      The present.

      SETTING

      The living room of a large and comfortable house in a Karoo village in the heartland of South Africa.

      I feared I’d forget my Latin language

      Forget how to use my dear mother tongue.

      I thought it would clot and dry in my veins

      And never again its sweet song be sung.

      Now I talk to myself and speak the words

      Savoring each syllable so long unused.

      I speak and practice my verbal art,

      Those skills they say in Rome I abused.

      So I eke out my life and pass my time

      Trying to erase my loss and my

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