The Author

The Author in Valley Song is just that: Athol Fugard himself, appearing as a character in his own play. He is a white man in his sixties, a successful and prosperous playwright who was born in the Karoo region of South Africa, but has lived most of his life in Port Elizabeth and traveled the cities of the world. Like the real-life Fugard, The Author has devoted his career to writing hopeful plays about the future of his country, but is now "sick and tired of the madness and desperate scramble of my life in the make-believe world of theatre."

What he wants now is to live in the "real" world, so he has chosen to return to the Karoo and purchase a small house on a piece of farmland, where he can live out the rest of his days writing prose ("no more nonsense from actors...