My Children! My Africa!
By Athol Fugard
TBPAC’s Shimberg Playhouse Sept. 3 - 20
LeRoy Mitchell Jr. and Joshua Goff
This heartfelt and profoundly moving play, which had its world premiere in Johannesburg in 1989, focuses on education during a crucial period in South Africa’s history and raises questions that persist despite the collapse of apartheid.
The story is set in apartheid-torn Johannesburg in 1984 against the backdrop of a campaign to boycott classes in protest of the inferiority of Bantu education.
The play follows the friendship of two teenagers —Thami, who is black, and Isabel, who is white and goes to private school — as well as Thami’s hopeful African high school teacher, Mr. M, who is trying to work within a system designed to fail its students. The teacher has a love of learning and words and he struggles to lift his students above the strife and violence that is boiling over in their black township.
This inspiring and uplifting twentieth century classic tells a powerful story of political awakening and heroism
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