Blood Knot

Athol Fugard

Two brothers, one light skinned and one dark, children of the same mother, try the relieve the boredom of their existence they are trapped in, in which the light-skinned Morrie sends the dark Zach out to work each day for the money they will use to buy a farm "out there" somewhere, away from the polluted lake and crumbling shacks of Korsten. Morrie has Zach buy a newspaper so that he can get Zach a pen-pal. Zach, however, is illiterate and brings back a white newspaper, a fact which Morrie only realises when a pen-pal, Ethel, writes back enclosing a picture - and the information that her brother is a policeman. Morrie panics, but Zach forces him to continue to write. It is a dangerous game, yet it gives a meaning to their drab existence. Eventually Ethel wishes to meet Zach and Zach forces Morrie, who can pass for white, to spend their hard-earned savings on proper clothing which he will wear to take Zach's place. Before the meeting can take place, however, Ethel writes to inform Zach that she is now engaged and mist stop writing. Morrie is relieved, but Zach is downcast. In order to cheer him up Morrie agrees to put on the suit once more. Then caught up in their game, the two brothers begin to enact the great drama of the colour barrier, all the fears and hatred locked up in a suit and a different skin. They are the point of physical violence when Morrie's alarm clock rings and Morrie strips off the suit, removing the extra skin and becoming the brother of the black man once more. When Zach asks, "What is it, Morrie? The two of us… you know… in here?" and Morrie answers, "Home."

In the play Fugard is not just speaking of the blood tie between the two brothers but of the blood knot between all men. The blood knot that has been twisted or broken by the terrible consciousness of race and caste that has been the great problem of the century.