Winston, tongue-tied and uncertain, is doubtful: "Take your Antigone and shove it up your ass," he snarls. But that isn't all they're doing – a prison entertainment evening is being planned, and John attempts to persuade Winston that together they should stage a scene from Sophocles. On a shallow platform-cum-cell built up on sand, sparely designed by Holly Pigott, inmates Winston and John act out the routines they have performed every day for the last three years: squabbling over a bucket of cold water, fantasising about home, doing their utmost to carve out a sense of self against an indifferent system. The Young Vic's new studio staging, by the award-winning young director Alex Brown, keeps contemporary parallels at a distance, and is all the more suffocatingly effective for it. In an era of Guantánamo and secret terrorism courts, there seem to be more Islands in the world than ever. While Robben Island itself has long since been given over to birdlife and tour groups snapping pictures of Mandela's cell, this short but potent play has lost little of its force. In the distance there's noise, but is it the crash of the surf or the angry buzz of flies? Everywhere, but never seen, the unblinking gaze of the warden.Īthol Fugard's The Island, created with actor-activists John Kani and Winston Ntshona for Cape Town's Space theatre, may be 40 years old this year, but it has the rough majesty of a classic.
![what year is the island by athol fugard set what year is the island by athol fugard set](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/santamariatimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/19/919013cc-90da-5876-9311-4f30d4057d78/919013cc-90da-5876-9311-4f30d4057d78.preview-300.jpg)
T wo men grunt and sweat under the sun, heaving wheelbarrows of sand from one place to another.