The setting and staging are presented in different ways to show the isolation and confinement in the cell. Fugard does this by the centre of the stage being raised to represent a cell on Robben Island. In the cell everything is neat and tidy, blankets are all folded and this is because mess would take up more room. The black prisoners are trying to maintain standards and not act like animals even though they are treated like them. There is ‘a moat of harsh, white light’ representing a cell, from which they cannot escape. John and Winston, who are the two characters in the cell, have been thrown together by chance, but they have a common cause to hold them together. They are on there own and have no possessions this causes dramatic confluence and conflict due to the claustrophobic space.
John and Winston are two very different characters John being more educated and spiritual whilst Winston is more practical and physically stronger. They are living in constant fear of being beaten by Hodoshe, which is the only thing they have in common. They have realised that they must work together for black freedom, because if they don’t they will fail.
Hodoshe wants to break their relationship by giving them pointless, ‘futile’ and hardworking jobs, but they manage to overcome this tremendous task when there friendship is tested at the beach. The beach reminds them of their childhood, when they were free, which automatically increases pressure and stress upon the futile work. After digging at the beach they are both beaten due to not running fast enough back to their cell; however Winston and John respond in different ways. Winston being the dominate one calls out to ‘Hodoshe!’ turns into stress and anger ‘I want Hodoshe, I want him now’. Whilst John the supplicant tries to calm him down by saying ‘leave him, Winston. Listen to me, man! If he comes now we’ll be in bigger shit. Winston not really taking notice of john turns his anger in to rage, again John tries to calm him down by bribing him saying, ‘Maybe he will let us go back to the quarry tomorrow’, to work at the quarry was a privilege for them. However as soon as Winston realises John is injured he immediately calms himself down and checks to see if John is alright. This incident proves how strong there relationship is when Winston realises that John is more important than his own needs. John repeats the word ‘domination’ and makes a joke to show that they are rebuilding after the conflict and that they are together, Hodoshe is the enemy and he is not going to become between them.
This play is all about pressures, stress and the contrast between the whites and blacks. The island shows how the blacks were tortured and given such hard, futile jobs to try and break black society. Hodoshe thought that if they could break this then that would stop the blacks protesting against the pass lours. Hodoshe is like god he has control over the blacks and tries to punish them not only mentally but physically. However John and Winston have realised if they stick together then they will not fail.