About this item
Highlights
- A career summation, its author's own 'Mecca.'
- About the Author: Athol Fugard (1932-2025) worked in the theater as a playwright, director and actor for more than fifty years.
- 80 Pages
- Drama, European
Description
About the Book
A South African pastor and a young teacher from Cape Town battle over the fate of an eccentric elderly widow.Book Synopsis
A career summation, its author's own 'Mecca.'--Frank Rich, New York Times
After her husband dies, aging Miss Helen begins to fill her home and garden in the remote South African bush with strange sculptures made from cement, glass, wire, and recycled materials. Marius, a local clergyman, believes Helen should cease this habit and move to a senior home. But Elsa, a young teacher from Cape Town, arrives and encourages Helen to keep going. The two visitors spar over whether the peculiar art is an outpouring of creativity or an outbreak of madness.
Review Quotes
Mecca throbs with a despairing awareness of the South Africa of the 1970s as a broken and corrupting nation, a spiritual prison for those who inhabit it.
--Ben Brantley, New York Times
About the Author
Athol Fugard (1932-2025) worked in the theater as a playwright, director and actor for more than fifty years. His plays include Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, "Master Harold"... and the boys, The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa!, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Valley Song.