Tuesday sees the world premiere in Johannesburg of Athol=20 Fugard’s new play. He spoke to MATTHEW KROUSE
ATHOL FUGARD’S island, today, is not the isolated penal=20 colony he once dramatised with fellow actors John Kani=20 and Winston Ntshona. His present refuge is a territory=20 of optimism, where he directs hopeful youngsters who=20 symbolise freedoms gained. It’s a happy valley of song.
By working with the young, Fugard gets what he calls “my=20 monkey-gland injections”. His new play, Valley Song, is=20 no exception, for it is one of many recent instances in=20 which he has chosen to work with someone at least 30=20 years younger than himself. Here, his co-worker is=20 Esmerelda Bihl, and Fugard’s face lights up at the=20 mention of her name.
There are both personal and political reasons why Fugard=20 now concentrates his energies on the youth: “At this=20 point in time, as South Africans, we are the happy, or=20 unhappy, participants in one of the most extraordinary=20 political adventures of the 20th century.
“It looks as if it’s going to be an adventure with a=20 happy ending. We’re well into our second year down the=20 line, and we haven’t fallen apart. A lot of things are=20 still wrong, but we knew that. We knew what was going to=20 be on the debit side after 18 months, and there are no=20
“What we’re inclined to forget sometimes is how much we=20 have achieved, how much is holding together. That sense=20 of drama, that incredible adventure, I want to be a part=20 of. And the only way that somebody in my age group — 63=20 years old, his entire writing career defined by the=20 apartheid years — can club into it is by connecting=20 with the kind of young people I’ve been able to touch,=20 feel, understand and respond to. They’re the reality of=20 our new nation.
“Left to my own devices, I would turn into something of=20 a fossil. I’m embedded deep in the mud strata of those=20 apartheid years.”
In Valley Song, Fugard plays two old men: Abraam, a=20 poor, coloured veteran of World War II, who is the=20 grandfather of Bihl’s Veronica; and an author who enters=20 their lives. Like The Road to Mecca, the play is set in=20 Nieu Bethesda, Fugard’s adopted home. It was here that=20 he began to combine the actual events and characters=20 that would constitute a fictitious play. But the process=20 was difficult.
“I structured a story to deal with these two characters,=20 bringing them together as grandfather and granddaughter.=20 I have in my bottom drawer, back in Port Elizabeth,=20 three orthodox versions of Valley Song as a straight=20 play, but it just wasn’t working for me. I just couldn’t=20 get it up. Sorry about the language, but I just couldn’t=20 get hard.
“I realised that somehow I had to match the adventure of=20 writing about this young woman. I had to match it with=20 the same kind of adventure, on my side, in terms of my=20 craft. I had to throw my rules away; I had to tear the=20 stage open to a certain extent.
“There’s nothing radical about the play — it gives you=20 a story line and it follows it. But it does so in a way=20 that I’ve never used before.”
It’s amusing that Fugard refers to playwriting in sexual=20 terms. And he extends the metaphor: “There is a sexual=20 imagery that runs through the play, and it is in=20 relation to the land. It’s a disguised subtext. There is=20 this old coloured with a handful of pumpkin seeds,=20 wanting to put that seed into the soil. In a sense, I am=20 that old man, except that my handful is a handful of=20 words, my vegetable lands are a handful of paper. It’s=20 exactly the same.”
In his latest handful of paper, Fugard offers a=20 direction for young people to follow, in times of=20 personal transition. A message is embedded in the=20 actions of Veronica, whose ambition is to go to the city=20 and become a star. But is hers an example youths should=20
“I like to believe that Veronica is a role model,=20 finding, firstly, faith in herself. On the basis of that=20 faith in herself, and in the pursuit of a dream for=20 herself, she finds the courage to step into an uncertain=20
“It’s not the specifics of Veronica’s dream and her=20 ambition that one lauds. I mustn’t judge that. It’s her=20 spirit. If somebody wants to be a television star and a=20 singer, and make lots of money, then good luck to them.=20 It’s not the specifics of her vision, but the fact that=20 she has a vision.=20
“She finds faith in herself in desperate circumstances.=20 She follows through against powerful emotional=20 opposition from the old man. She’s up against poverty,=20 isolation and a lack of support.”
It is ironic that Fugard will not question the motives=20 of a character he has created himself. This is perhaps a=20 result of his own mysterious journey, which has led him=20 to settle in Nieu Bethesda. He reflects on this, in the=20 context of his play: “Growing up in the coloured=20 location in Nieu Bethesda is very much harder than=20 growing up in the back streets of Port Elizabeth. But=20 from those back streets of Port Elizabeth, I went on a=20 journey which took me to Broadway and West End. And=20 where have I ended up? In Nieu Bethesda!”
Fugard’s home is now in that desolate valley. He writes=20 of Nieu Bethesda in his memoir, Cousins, that “as the=20 crow flies it is about 50 miles from where I was born”.=20 In this way he has come full circle, yet he is=20 surprisingly unjaded. He retains the energy of a fresh- faced child who, like his character Veronica, is driven=20 by a vision and an obliging resilience. Being world=20 famous doesn’t seem to have touched him at all.
Valley Song runs at the Market Theatre from August 15 to=20 September 16. It then travels to the Midlands Drama=20 Festival in Hilton and to Port Elizabeth. After its=20 South African run, it will transfer to the McCarter=20 Theatre in Princeton and then New York’s Manhattan=20 Theatre Club. It is also to be produced at the Royal=20 Court in London