David SMith

1 month ago | mg.co.za | David SMith |David Smith

In his first performance back on a Johannesburg stage, 82-year-old Athol Fugard is a white-bearded, cardigan-clad dynamo, crackling and fizzing with theatrical life force. Later that August night, leaving the Market Theatre, he suddenly looks his age, sunken beneath a flat cap and seeking to exit untrumpeted through the draughty foyer. Perhaps he is pushing himself too far. But the following morning, in a discreet guesthouse down a discreet street, Fugard is firing again.