The Island is Robben Island, South Africa's notorious prison, where John and Winston are political prisoners and cellmates. This modern classic by Tony Award-winners Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona celebrates hope, passion, and the strength of friendship. “The Island” by Athol Fugard is short but deeply moving. This short-story follows two prisoners, John and Winston, who have been imprisoned on Robben Island for unknown reasons. The two men are tasked with performing the ancient Greek tragedy, “Antigone”, for a.
The Island By Athol Fugard Shmoop
I know why I’m here, and its history not legends.” (Reader 92) as he tries to differentiate how literature can effect reality when in fact the use of art provokes his thinking and the words of others had a change in Winston and how he saw the prison and the crime he made. While “the classics cannot console” it can demonstrate in the past how people stood up for what they believed in and begin a revolution. Making a parallel connection can provide the audience and the character and example of what history has taught and the lessons that need to be learned. He rejects playing the part of “Antigone” and describes it as “child’s play.” Winston ultimately confesses of the frustration that he can sympathize with Antigone, anguished he is “jealous of your freedom, John, I also want to count” he then take the consolidations of what the arts give him and performs at the end because ultimately as his friend leaves, art is the only constant he has left. The Island “becomes battle cry and a way to show that freedom can sometimes be ascertained through art” (Fischer).Director Derrick Sanders pointed out that “oppression by the state is precisely” what it is about. The Island can give the audience a glimpse into the lives and struggles of what other groups have to face. It brings the injustice that many face with the hope that change will come when people see the
The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Fugard, Athol. The Island. Oxford University Press, Township Plays Anthology, 2000 Paperback Reissue.
The play is one of several written by Fugard as part of his ongoing anti-racist activism in South Africa, in Africa in general, and around the world.
The play is divided into four scenes. Scene One begins with a prologue-like sequence in which central characters John and Winston enact the various torture-like circumstances in which they find themselves. Then, without a break in the action, the characters are returned to their shared cell, where they tend to each other’s injuries and try to encourage each other to forget about the suffering they experienced that day.
As part of his efforts to distract Winston from his suffering, John tries to get him engaged in their preparations for a performance of the play Antigone that they are offering to the guards and to the other prisoners. Winston does not seem too interested, but John keeps pressing him, asking for his help in constructing a necklace out of used nails for the play’s central character, the princess Antigone, to wear. Their conversation also references the play’s subject matter - Antigone’s struggle against the autocratic power of the State, as represented by her uncle, Creon. John also urges Winston to be more agreeable in his behavior towards the guards. Finally, he engages Winston in a game that they seem to play often, leading each other through imagined stories that remind them of their lives outside prison.
The Island By Athol Fugard Summary
In Scene Two, Winston takes steps in the direction of committing to the Antigone performance, but becomes upset when John laughs at him in his costume. John’s attempts to convince him to get back to the preparations are interrupted by the arrival of a guard, who takes John out of the cell. Alone, Winston muses on his discomfort with the whole Antigone experience, and resolves to tell John again that he will not do it. When John returns, Winston starts to have that conversation, but is interrupted when John tells him that he has been told his sentence has been shortened. The two men celebrate John’s impending freedom, but John cuts the celebration short out of fear that the whole thing might be a trap.
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Scene Three is set later that same night. John lies awake counting the days until his release. Winston leads John through an imagining of his return home that is at first a happy story, but then becomes darker and more intense. When John cries out for him to stop, Winston explains that he is afraid of being left alone, and of losing his sense of self and of purpose when John leaves. After a short passage of time, John asks Winston if he remembers his lines for the play. Winston says yes, and they get ready to do the performance of Antigone.
Scene Four is set on the day of the performance. John speaks to the audience, which consists of guards, other authorities, and fellow inmates. He sums up events in the lives of the characters before the play began, and then speaks the play’s first words – those of Creon, the voice of the State whose authority has been challenged by the princess Antigone. Winston then appears, wearing the necklace of nails and dressed in what passes for a costume. Creon (John) and Antigone (Winston) argue over whether Antigone has the right to defy the state. As their argument intensifies, Winston rips off his wig and accepts her punishment, having “honoured those things to which honour belongs” (227).
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The Island By Athol Fugard Analysis
The play ends with a series of images that echo the circumstances of imprisonment and repression with which the play began.