The five plays collected here offer a unique insight into the role of theatre in a situation of oppression. They were produced in close collaboration with their original black amateur casts, drawing on their lives and everyday experiences in the townships. They range from the early apprentice work of the brash but vital Sophiatown plays, No-Good Friday and Nongogo, to the freer, more urgent, and profound New Brighton plays, including the most famous Sizwe Bansi is Dead and The Island, and the previously unavailable The Coat.

Athol Fugard is one of the most respected and frequently studied of living dramatists. Working in active collaboration with the people of the South African townships, his plays are informed and powerful portraits of the black urban experience.Edited with an Introduction, notes, and a glossary by Dennis Walder, a leading critic of South African literature, this book collects the five `township plays' - Nongogo, No-Good Friday, Sizure Bansi is Dead, The Island, and The Coat - in a single volume for the first time, the latter of which has never been published in Britain before.

'They are the wonderfully moving and amusing "Sizwe Bansi is Dead", ... "The Coat" (previously unavailable), the urgently profound "The Island" ... Anyone interested in freedom or drama should buy this book.' Day by Day