Paula Fourie Author

Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard is a renowned playwright, director and occasional actor. His work spans the period of apartheid through the first democratic elections, and into present-day South Africa. He has written close to forty plays, including Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, “Master Harold” ... and the boys, The Road to Mecca, The Train Driver, and The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek. His most recent play (co-written with Paula Fourie), Concerning the Life of Babyboy Kleintjies, will be premiered in Stellenbosch in late 2022. Many of his works have been turned into films: Tsotsi, based on his 1980 novel of the same name, won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. One of the most performed playwrights in the world, Athol is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award and the prestigious Praemium Imperiale global arts prize for Theatre/Film awarded by the Japan Art Association. At 90, he continues to write from his cottage in the Cape Winelands, South Africa, where he lives with his wife, Paula Fourie.

Paula Fourie

Born in 1985 to a family in the diplomatic service, Paula Fourie spent the majority of her childhood in Europe and the US, returning to South Africa without having witnessed first-hand the turbulent final years of apartheid. She went on to receive her BMus and MMus degrees from the University of Pretoria and her PhD from Stellenbosch University. Today, she holds fellowships at the Bern University of the Arts and the Africa Open Institute at Stellenbosch University.

Paula is the author of Mr Entertainment: The Life of Taliep Petersen, forthcoming in September 2022 with LAPA, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa. She is also an occasional theatre director and the co-author (with Athol Fugard) of the play Concerning the Life of Babyboy Kleintjies, scheduled for a premiere in Stellenbosch in late 2022. Her poetry has appeared in several journals including New Contrast, Stanzas and New Coin.