Athol

“It’s a play that I’ve loved and has been on my mind, and the moment we looked into the rights, we heard of Athol passing away,” said McCraney of the playwright, who died last month.

While generally true, the precept doesn’t hold in the case of playwright Athol Fugard, whose body of work helped transform the history of his nation.

“Working alongside Athol Fugard, directing his new plays for ten years, was a profound honor and one of the most rewarding periods of my professional life,” Sachs, who retired last year as the Fountain’s co-founding artistic director, wrote in an email.

Athol Fugard, South Africa’s foremost dramatist who explored the pervasiveness of apartheid in such searing works as ‘The Blood Knot’ and “‘Master Harold” … and the Boys.’

Athol Fugard, who has died aged 92, was widely acclaimed as one of South Africa's greatest playwrights.