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A Lesson from Aloes

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Athol Fugard's three character 1980 play, A Lesson From Aloes, about the struggles of South African's common folk, is a sharp, intimate examination of apartheid and how its accompanying betrayal, mistrust and madness shattered quiet lives. By far, I am sure, these themes are much more exciting when witnessed in performance, but the dialogue, the environments and the depth of feeling that these three people display to each other (as well as to the reader) leave an indelible impression none the less. Although the political situation in South Africa has changed since Fugard's play was first written and performed, the memory and idea of institutionalized racism stills burns, as well it should, and this play can certainly serve as a primer on the destruction of lives, hearts and souls that affected all races and ethnicities in South Africa. Fugard's ultimate point seems to be that although the non-whites were horribly abused, the white factions of the population suffered as well; Through the representation of the three major ethnic groups (the Dutch Afrikaners, the English, and the 90% non-whites) that have held political battle over this beautiful, but harsh country throughout its the turbulent history, Fugard reveals the fact the injustices of apartheid violated humanity as a whole. As Pete and Gladys Bezuidenhuit prepare for the arrival of Steve, Pete's dear friend from the `resistance' days, we discover that Piet is absorbed in the classification and identification of his aloes collection, and that Gladys seems to suffer from some form of nervousness or paranoia. Absorbed with naming and classifying his aloes ["I've set some space aside for the dwarf species . . ."] Piet represents the Afrikaner obsession with making sure everything is in its proper place and proper order. To Piet, classifying and segregating his aloes is a hobby; to the government ministers of apartheid's complicated system of segregation, it meant control, surveillance, torture and death. Gladys, the characterized envoy from South Africa's British Imperial past, remembers all too well the surveillance and investigations by the South African secret police. It was these investigations, where her personal property was confiscated, that has left this representative of the British South Africa bitter, paranoid and ultimately a fragile, tragic victim of apartheid's ruthlessness. Steve Daniels, a `Colored Man' as Fugard describes him, is the expected guest of honor along with his wife and 4 children. Piet tells Gladys, much to her envy, that Steve and his family are leaving South Africa for England. Piet awaits Steve's arrival with affectionate expectation, while Gladys awaits nervously, if not fearfully. One of the reasons for these conflicting attitudes towards Steve's arrival is because Steve has been in prison due to his revolutionary activities which were revealed to the secret police by an informer in the group. Fugard heightens this dual anticipation by keeping Steve offstage until the second act of this two act play and when he does arrive, he is alone, leaving his wife and children at home. As Fugard's spokesperson for the vast majority of South Africans, Steve Daniels is a man whose simple ambitions are crushed by a totalarian government in a country that he loves and bitterly regrets wanting to leave. At various times throughout the play all three characters tell stories of their pasts and it is these recollections that give the depth and meaning to their characters' motives and present states of mind. Piet tells of his lonely days on the farm during the drought years when only the aloes would grow and thrive. Steve talks of happier days with his dad but also of the days of torture and prison. Gladys stories of her past begin innocently enough, the first concerning her trip when she was a little girl to the shore near Capetown and the sunburn which caused her mother some concern: "Mommy was terrified that I was going to end up with a brown skin." By the end of the story however, Gladys is accorded the honor of carrying and relating the most horrifying stories of all. Despite the horror and sadness of the play there is plenty of beauty and entertainment value as well. Piet's love of poetry shows him to be one of the more enlightened Afrikaners rather than an insensitive Dutch brute and his recitations, particularly the The Slave's Dream which he shares with Steve, add a constant sense of underlying beauty to the proceedings. In addition the stylish language, there is intrigue and suspense keeping the reader and audience riveted to the developing confrontation between the three characters. Due to Gladys' delicate mental condition brought about through Piet's involvement with revolutionaries (probably the African National Congress) and his subsequent investigation by the secret police, the reader is kept wondering if her shocking statements are the ravings of a mad woman or buried truths that Gladys is powerless to keep buried. Suffice it to say that Fugard's play, far from dated, retells the madness that was apartheid in an exciting and stylish fashion. Far from being a dry polemic on the disasters wrought on South Africa by a ruthless regime, A Lesson From Aloes reveals spiritual desolation in uncompromising and personal terms.

In A Lesson from Aloes Piet and Gladys, a white couple in their mid-forties must counter the trauma and pain of living in apartheid run South Africa. Even as whites they have not be spared the indignity of the police state, the brutality of the Special Branch or the suspicion of comrades. As well, Steve, a black contemperary and an old friend who introduced Piet to the struggle has been harassed, punished and imprisoned for his part in seeking justice (or being at a party even) in defiance of the law.
What becomes these three is moving stuff. The stuff of close-up sorrow and collective disillusionment, in the country, in the struggle to free it from it's hate, in friendships, and in people as a whole. From there each must seek a peace with life, and as such, a lesson from aloes.
I recommend A Lesson from Aloes as another of Athol Fugard's highly humane, difficult renderings of a place where the worst in humanity was law, and the best of humanity faced it for what it was. All his works are sure testaments to human beauty under the clouds of human evil, and this play is no different.