Boesman and Lena

Infobox Play
name = Boesman and Lena


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writer = Athol Fugard
characters = Boesman
Lena
Outa
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date of premiere = 1969
country of Origin = South Africa
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Boesman and Lena is a play by South Africa's Athol Fugard.

The play was inspired by an incident in 1965 when Fugard was driving down a rural road in South Africa. He noticed an old lady walking along the road in the boiling-hot sun, miles from anywhere, and offered her a lift. She was overcome and cried with gratitude. She told him that her husband had just died and she was walking to another farm. If Fugard hadn’t stopped, she would have spent the night on the side of the road. cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Boesman and Lena / Introduction | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.enotes.com/boesman/ | work =enotes | pages = | accessdate = 2008-03-06 | language = ] (It was a common practice in apartheid South Africa for farmers to evict worker’s families when the worker died).

What struck Fugard was that the woman was in pain and suffering but was far from defeated. This inspired him to write the play.

The play is a small-cast play showing the effect of apartheid on a few individuals and concerns a " coloured" man and woman walking from one shanty town to another.

It premiered at the Rhodes University Little Theatre in Grahamstown , South Africa in 1969. Fugard himself played the part of Boesman, Lena was played by Yvonne Bryceland and Glynn Day, a white actor, played the part of Outa in blackface.

Film versions

Film adaptations of Fugard's play directed by Ross Devenish and starring Fugard and Bryceland and directed by John Berry and starring Danny Glover and Angela Basset were released in 1974 and 2000, respectively.

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DD163AF933A25751C1A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 New York Times review]

* [http://www.kdhx.org/index.php?Itemid=364&id=1907&option=com_content&task=view Black Rep review]

* [http://www.media-imdb.com/title/tt0071234/ IMDb film entry for the 1974 version]

* [http://www.media-imdb.com/title/tt0197311/combined IMDb film entry for the 2000 version]

References