Arts
South African playwright Athol Fugard (Recipient of the 2011 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement) discusses his newest work, “The Train Driver”, during rehearsals at the Long Wharf Theatre, and explains why this play marks the end of a stage in his writing -- but promises that he'll die with a fountain pen in one hand and a blank sheet of paper in the other. He also talks about the artistic collaborators who have been so important to him -- actors Zakes Mokae and Yvonne Bryceland, author/actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona, and designer/co-director Susan Hilferty; explains why guilt has been such a driving force behind his work; considers why he has on occasion been actor and director in his own work; defines the effect of his recent U.S. residency on his playwriting; considers the effect that the official end of apartheid has had on him and his work; and emphatically addresses recent comments both made by and attributed to him regarding the state of political playwriting in the world today.