Céline Smith Task 2 15 January 2015
Athol Fugard’s playwright The Road to Mecca and My Children, My Africa!’s have a interesting and different from the norm plots, the character’s important roles in the play and vocal and personal resonance options.
My Children My Africa! is in a South African country town, where an inter-school debate takes place. Thami, a teenage boy from a poor black school and Isabel, a teenage girl from the town 's middle-class white school, lead in this event. Mr. M, the head teacher of the black school, persuades the young pair to join as a team, coached by himself, for a national school English literature quiz. During the course of the coaching an intense and uneasy relationship develops amongst the three as they learn to trust each other more. Although due to the political crisis of the country, the relationship turns to a tragedy. Thami is drawn into the politics of violence and Mr. M is murdered by a mob who believe him to be a police assosiate. Thami escapes from South Africa to join the rebels in the North and Isabel is left alone to pay her respects to the memory of Mr. M.
In The Road to Mecca, there are three characters: Miss Helen, Elsa and Marius. This play is based on the facts of the life and work of Helen Martins of New Bethseda, South Africa who has filled her yard with absurd statues and sculptures, all facing toward Mecca. Helen receives an unexpected visit from her much younger friend, Elsa Barlow, who has driven eight