Outfit’s apartheid drama still packs a punch

Through Nov. 2. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 15 and 22). $30-$35. Theatrical Outfit (the Balzer Theater at Herren's), 84 Luckie St. N.W., Atlanta. 1-877-725-8849, www.theatricaloutfit.org.

Bottom line: Talky, but there’s no debating its enduring power.

It’s unquestionably sad to acknowledge how long overdue change was in coming to the oppressed black majority living under the institutionalized racial segregation of apartheid in South Africa. But it’s equally empowering to realize what a vast difference just the past two decades have made.

In a career spanning more than 50 years and including some 30 plays, acclaimed South African dramatist Athol Fugard ranks as the foremost documentarian of the social and political horror of that era. He’s arguably best known for his 1982 one-act “Master Harold … and the Boys,” about the fragile relationship between a privileged (white) teenager and two of his family’s beholden (black) servants, circa 1950.

Fugard’s “My Children! My Africa!” — a full-length (three-hour) drama, written in 1989 and set in 1985 — is even more demanding, and rewarding. As usual, he demonstrates a tremendous talent for distilling larger issues into an intimate story that functions on a highly personal, fundamentally human level. Here, two young students from opposing debate teams come of age under the turbulent, increasingly rebellious (and violent) circumstances of the times.

Isabel Dyson is wealthy and white; Thami Mbikwana is beleaguered and black. They live on opposite sides of the provincial town of Camdeboo, but they might as well be from two totally different worlds. When they join forces for a big regional debate, as colleagues rather than adversaries, they symbolize nothing less than the unifying promise of a country at large, essentially resting on their innocent shoulders all the weight of the world(s) clashing around them.

Isabel and Thami have no way of knowing it, of course, but within a few short years of the play’s debut, the South African government would finally ratify a new constitution and effectively abolish apartheid (in 1993). Within another year of that, the people — ALL of them — would vote, electing the formerly imprisoned civil rights activist Nelson Mandela as the country’s first black president.

Audiences of 7 Stages’ utterly captivating 1992 local premiere of the play had no real way of knowing that, either. To see “My Children! My Africa!” again, in light of those amazing turns of events and with a certain historical hindsight, what’s most remarkable about director Gary Yates’ forceful staging for Theatrical Outfit is how vibrant and relevant it feels, when the drama could have come across like some kind of dated or didactic period piece.

Co-stars Maria Rodriguez-Sager and Dane Troy deliver impassioned performances, to be sure, although they’re a lot more persuasive in their heated exchanges with each other than in confessional soliloquies meant to reveal quiet introspection.

The venerable Rob Cleveland (who also scored in Aurora’s 2013 mounting of “Master Harold”) lends excellent support as their conscientious mentor and teacher. The striking set is designed by Siauyee Ho, the moody lighting by Cristopher P. Kettrey.

Some things change, and other things never do. South Africa isn’t the same place it was when Fugard wrote his play — but, just as thankfully, the eloquence and intelligence of his writing have lost none of their profound conviction.