The play is set in an unnamed prison widely believed to be Robben Island, whose most famous prisoner, Nelson Mandela, was kept captive there for twenty-seven years. The play premiered in 1974 in Cape Town, South Africa, and then played in London and New York, in repertory with another play by Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona called Sizwe Banzi is Dead. The three men met when they were members of a drama group called the Serpent Players, a group started by Fugard. Set during South African apartheid, The Islandis a play that Athol Fugard co-wrote with two writers and actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both Black South Africans.