Athol
Fugard’s early play, Blood
Knot, is an interesting amalgam of theatrical schools.
The bulk of it seems to exist within the bounds of poetic realism. It takes
place in a decrepit shack in a poverty-stricken “Coloured” section of Port
Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1961, when Apartheid was in full force. Its two (and
only) characters are two brothers, born of the same mother but different
fathers: dark-skinned Zachariah (Colman Domingo) and Morris (Scott Shepherd), who can pass easily for white. Nonetheless,
Morris is drawn to his brother and has opted to live with and care for
him—as sort of the “homebody” in the relationship—rather than make
a much easier way for himself in white society. A pivot point comes when
Zachariah’s sexual urges (“I want woman!”) become too vehement to ignore.
(There is a hint that his sole experience of sex is rape, as well.) Morris suggests answering a Pen Pal ad in
the personals section of the newspaper, which the illiterate Zachariah does,
Morris of course being the one who does the actual writing. In time, a response
comes from an interested woman in another town, with a picture. A picture that
indicates she is white—something neither of the brothers counted on. The
accompanying letter mentions also that her brother is a policeman.
Now
of course, in real life, you could turn off that faucet by simply not
continuing the correspondence. But the brothers believe they are committed
somehow to see things through. And this brings us to another school of
theatre—I won’t exactly call it theatre of the absurd, as the events
track linearly…but we’re into comic absurdity without a doubt: the obsessive
pursuit of a goal that loses sight of the original objective. This in turn
leads to the way in which the brothers work out problems and express hidden
feelings: role play. Which is when, finally, we enter avant garde territory,
lose the physicality of literal place and find ourselves in the kind of
landscape that would accommodate Waiting for Godot. A play, by the way, that seems to have had its
influence on Blood Knot.
Like
many Fugard plays, this one is overwritten, but at least dramatic tension is
not withheld as he sets up his characters. The contrast between the brothers is
established early and starkly. However, Fugard has directed as well, and he has
always been meticulous about caressing individual beats, so the overwritten
text takes its own sweet time, longer than it ought, to get where it’s going.
The good news—it’s worth the ride if you have the patience for it; and
the two actors making it happen are uncompromising and terrific.
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