Athol Fugard's Exits and Entrances: The Playwright, The Actor and the Poet‪.‬

Summary The theme of "exits and entrances" can be traced on various levels, e.g. on the personal level of death (Fugard's father, the deaths of Marais and Huguenet) and birth (Fugard's daughter); on the professional level (the end of Huguenet's career versus the start of Fugard's career), as well as political (one political dispensation taking the place of another). Against this thematic background three characters emerge: the Playwright (Young Fugard), the Actor (Andre Huguenet) and the Poet (Eugene Marais). This paper explores the interconnections and interactions between these three people and focuses on the aspect which binds them together, namely the issue of Afrikaner identity. Although all three of them stand outside of a narrow definition of this identity, they can all be defined in terms of their links with the Afrikaner, their position within the Afrikaner community and their stand towards Afrikaans.