On Stage: A play on the wings of memory

After an absence of 15 years, Athol Fugard, the actor, capers about the stage with a sprightly spring in his step.

In The Shadow of the Hummingbird, his most recent play as writer, Fugard stars and directs in collaboration with Paula Fourie.

At 82 this energy and command of the stage is a masterclass in ownership of character and story, alone worth the price of the ticket.

Yet here we have Fugard in another semi-autobiographical role. Looking for the seams that separate the man from the reputation will preoccupy many, even if the narrative of the play does not race along.

The story concerns a retired South African professor transplanted to the US, and his doting American grandson. With just 60 minutes of running time and two characters, The Shadow of the Hummingbird has the poetic lyricism that is typical of Fugard's later work, musing on the natural world and memory.

Nature and the inner landscape merge: there are questions of love, innocence and mortality. A small and richly detailed set is the Californian room of Oupa, filled to the brim with memories and details of his "fiercely beautiful" homeland.

In an opening that surprises with the sparkle of the eccentric old man chatting to himself, searching through old notebooks for his best bits - even performing a little of his younger self for us - the arrival of his grandson, Boba, played sensitively by Marviantos Baker, for his daily visit brings more reminiscing and a joyful look at the connection between young and old seeking innocence and experience.

From the off there is no question that the line between Oupa and Fugard is blurred. The notebooks are, in fact, the author's own, complete with original dates of each entry, and we are in on the joke - or are we?

The relationship between Oupa and Boba has the sweetness and depth of familial love unbound by complexity or baggage reserved for other family members. They merely love and seek to know, and perhaps teach.

There is a moment of play-acting between Oupa and Boba, a battle between young and old. The old man is illuminated by his love for the child and is made jubilant in his desire to share his wisdom and experience, and it seems he cannot quite help himself in his giddiness, or in knowingly making heavy- handed references to Plato and William Blake. There are a few glimpses of the unadorned Oupa: a tired, lonely man burdened by old and new fears without the strength to put a brave face on it.

These are the moments when the blurring of the thin line between Oupa and Fugard is most thrilling - who is revealed, where is the truth?

Oupa/Fugard revels in this, dishing out pieces of his story: memory and wisdom like an old sage to his Boba, and to us if we are so inclined.

There may or not be another chance to hear his storytelling first hand, making this a rare opportunity not to be missed.

• The Shadow of the Hummingbird is on at The Market Theatre until August 17. www.computicket.com