About the Play:

The volume Statements contains the three plays by Athol Fugard, with John Kani and Winston Ntshona.

Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act: In South Africa a black slum school principal and a white librarian are in love — a love prohibited under the state's Immorality Act. They're caught and arrested, but the play's focus is not on the arrest itself but on the couple and the shadow between them a crippling one stripping them of their dignity and self respect. Theirs is not only a forbidden love that must be hidden, but one so fragile and painful due to conditions not of their making. After the arrest, they alternately perform a kind of piteous psychological stripping of themselves and finally the black man wrenchingly describes the complete moral devastation the state has inflicted on him and his people. (Cast; 1 female, 2 male)

What people say:

"Touching, moving and beautiful." — The New York Times

Sizwe Bansi Is Dead: In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Sizwe Banzi, a African worker whose passbook is not in order, walks into the photograph studio of Styles, another African. Without a proper passbook, Sizwe Banzi cannot work and therefore cannot support his wife and four children. Returning drunkenly from a bar one night, Sizwe Banzi and his friend, Buntu, stumble across the body of a dead man whose passbook is in order. Photographer Styles attaches Sizwe Banzi's photo to the dead man's passbook. So Sizwe Banzi "dies" by taking on the dead man's identity and so, too, lives again so he can support himself and his family. (Cast: 2 male)

What people say:

"A joyous hymn to human nature." — The New York Times

"Hypnotic ... Overwhelming compassion ... Powerful." — The New York Post

The Island: On a small Atlantic island is one of South Africa's maximum security prisons for political prisoners. There, two cell mates, Winston, a lifer, and John, in for ten years, have developed strong bonds of friendship. This bond is about to be broken, for John is soon to be released. This arouses hatred, envy and loss in Winston. John's feelings at his early release are mixed. The two have also devised a homespun version of Sophocles' "Antigone" and its presentation as a prisoner "entertainment" is a tremendous theatrical moment. It is also a scathing, ironic and symbolic indictment by these two Black prisoners of White South Africa. Cast: 2 male)

What people say:

"A most compelling experience." — The New York Times

"A political play with humanism and laughter ... Compassionate and original." — The New York Post

About the Playwright:

Athol Fugard is an internationally acclaimed South African playwright whose work deals with the political and social upheaval of the apartheid system in South Africa. He was educated at the University of Cape Town, and frequently directs and performs in his plays which are regularly performed in theatres in South Africa, Great Britain, the United States and around the world. Several of his plays have been adapted for the screen and his novel Tsotsi was made into a film that won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2011 he received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre.