Sorrows and Rejoicings

Last updated February 23, 2019

Sorrows and Rejoicings is a short play first published in November 2001, written by Athol Fugard. The play is set in the post-Apartheid South Africa n town of Karoo.

Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard OIS is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in South African English. He is best known for his political plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy Award-winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Fugard was an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. For the academic year 2000–2001, he was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the recipient of many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre" from the government of South Africa. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Apartheid system of racial segregation enforced through legislation in South Africa

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which encouraged state repression of Black African, Coloured, and Asian South Africans for the benefit of the nation's minority white population. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.

Characters

Dawid Olivier, a white poet, recently deceased

Marta, Dawid's South African mistress and former servant, also Rebecca's mother

Allison Olivier, Dawid's wife, an English woman

Rebecca, Dawid and Marta's daughter, who is eighteen

Plot

After the funeral service for Dawid, Marta and Allison remember out their shared relationship with the man. Rebecca watches sullenly from outside the room. It transpires that after Rebecca's birth, Dawid and Allison moved to London, which Dawid hoped would allow him to write more freely about the Apartheid government. Marta has waited for Dawid's return since he left, seeming not to have ever given up hope that he would return. Dawid appears as a character onstage; a reflection of the memories being voiced by the women. After being diagnosed with Leukemia, Dawid returned to Karoo, intending on reconciling with his estranged daughter, Rebecca. Though Rebecca intended on confronting him about how he ruined her and her mothers' lives on the night before his death, Rebecca never actually revealed her identity to him, leaving Dawid with a final sense of failure. Dawid dies less than a month after returning to Karoo.

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km²) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

The system of racial segregation in South Africa known as apartheid was implemented and enforced by a large number of acts and other laws. This legislation served to institutionalise racial discrimination and the dominance by white people over people of other races. While the bulk of this legislation was enacted after the election of the National Party government in 1948, it was preceded by discriminatory legislation enacted under earlier British and Afrikaner governments. Apartheid is distinguished from segregation in other countries by the systematic way in which it was formalised in law.

Leukemia, also spelled leukaemia, is a group of cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These white blood cells are not fully developed and are called blasts or leukemia cells. Symptoms may include bleeding and bruising problems, feeling tired, fever, and an increased risk of infections. These symptoms occur due to a lack of normal blood cells. Diagnosis is typically made by blood tests or bone marrow biopsy.

Criticism

"There are turbulent winds blowing through Sorrows and Rejoicings, underscored by Susan Hilferty's smoky-fires-of-Africa backdrops and Dennis Parichy's dimmed lighting. What Fugard is doing to focus on those winds is the cause of more rejoicings than sorrows."^[1] "The play is rich in moments of tense anguish, as the ghosts of the past come to stake their painful claims on the present, but possibly none is more harrowing than the recollected encounter between Dawid and his daughter Rebecca, who had come to seek revenge for a life’s worth of shame."^[2]

Susan Hilferty is an American costume designer for theatre, opera, and film.

Dennis Parichy is an American lighting designer. He won the 1980 Drama Desk Award for Talley's Folly and the Obie Award in 1981.

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References

↑ "Sorrows and Rejoicings" . Retrieved 2018-04-24.
↑ Isherwood, Charles (2002-02-04). "Sorrows and Rejoicings". Variety. Retrieved 2018-04-24.

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[1] "Sorrows and Rejoicings" . Retrieved 2018-04-24.

[2] Isherwood, Charles (2002-02-04). "Sorrows and Rejoicings". Variety. Retrieved 2018-04-24.