MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! - the Power of Words

MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! Athol Fugard's play about apartheid in South Africa (SA) is playing only through tomorrow at the Pershing Square Signature Center.  Mr. Fugard was last year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.  Last year he was also the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor of Drama at Oxford Univ.  This play is the epitome of the power of words over swords.  The 3 actor play, a black high school teacher, Mr. M.,  his male prodigee, Thami & a white female student, Isabel (from a private all white school,) takes place in SA in the mid '80's.  The play begins with a heated debate over men/women equality between the two students presided over by, Mr. M.  Both brilliant & belligerent students soon form a bond of friendship with Mr. M. coaching them as a team (very radical) for a literary competition.  Thami who has blossomed into an eloquent leader under Mr. M's tutelage grows impatient with waiting for change to apartheid & chooses to join militant comrades in violent protests.  "Words are power, that is what permits man to rule over animals," vehemently tells Thami.  It is Isabel, who ends the play by speaking of her love & admiration for Mr. M. as she felt she was one of his CHILDREN in THEIR AFRICA.  Never have words seared my soul as those spoken in this sovereign play.