Afternoon Tea with Athol Fugard and Paula Fourie

Grab a cuppa and get to know playwright, novelist, actor and director, Athol Fugard. Athol will be joined by his wife and creative partner, poet & director, Paula Fourie, who will both be in conversation with writer Barney Norris to discuss their work and career, offering a glimpse into their creative routine.

 

Programme:

• Welcome, introductions and housekeeping from Barney Norris (2 mins)
• Introductions from Athol Fugard and Paula Fourie with a glimpse into their creative routines (30 mins)
• Q&A with audience (10 mins)
• Summary and closing comments (3 mins)
• This event will be moderated by Sophia Jackson – Head of Events, SoA

 

Send us your questions in advance

If you would like to send questions in advance, email [email protected] with ‘Athol Fugard – Question’ in the subject header. We will prioritise questions sent in advance and answer as many as we can from the audience on the day.

 

SoA @ Home Fundraising Bookshop

Browse our virtual Bookshop.org store featuring books by authors and speakers taking part in the SoA @ Home Festival. When you make a purchase using our affiliate links, a percentage will go to the Authors’ Contingency Fund, providing hardship grants to authors in financial difficulty.

 

 

The Line-up

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, was premiered in Stellenbosch in 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, and their daughter, Halle.

 

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 Story of Taliep Petersen (LAPA/Penguin Random House South Africa, 2022). She is also an occasional theatre director and the co-author (with Athol Fugard) of the play Concerning the Life of Babyboy Kleintjies, premiered in Stellenbosch in 2022. Her poetry has appeared in several journals including New Contrast, Stanzas and New Coin.

 

Barney Norris

Barney Norris’s work has received awards from the International Theatre Institute, the Critics’ Circle, the Evening Standard, the Society of Authors and the South Bank Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Awards, among others, and been translated into eight languages. His plays include Visitors, Eventide, While We’re Here, Nightfall, The Wellspring and an acclaimed adaptation of Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day; his novels are Undercurrent, The Vanishing Hours, Turning For Home and Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain.

Barney is a member of the SoA’s Scriptwriters Committee.

Twitter: @barnontherun | Website: www.barneynorris.com

 

Catch up on Barney’s previous #SoAatHome events

• Afternoon Tea with Barney Norris
• Industry Insider – Theatre in a COVID world

 

Need to know 

Accessibility

• Attendees will have the option to turn on the live transcript option
• If you require BSL interpretation for this event, please email [email protected]

Before the event

• Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation email with the Zoom link
• If the confirmation email doesn’t arrive in your inbox, please check your junk/spam email folder
• Please add [email protected] to your Safe Senders list so you receive our confirmation, and reminder emails

During the event

• This online event will take place on Zoom Webinar; you will not be visible on screen but will be able ask questions via the Q&A function or interact via the chat box
• This event will be recorded but you won’t be on screen
• Attendees have the option to turn on the live transcript option
• This event is 45 minutes

After the event

• Hashtag for this event: #SoAatHome
• You’ll be able to catch the recording on our Vimeo channel

 

Booking

Book your place by using the registration below.

All #SoAatHome events are free but if you can afford to, please consider donating to our Authors’ Contingency Fund and we suggest a minimum donation of £5. The fund is to help professional authors experiencing financial hardship. DONATE HERE

If you are unable to book using the registration box below, please email [email protected] with the name and date of the event you’d like to register for and we’ll confirm your place.