Master Harold’s delicate dance delivers
SHAW REVIEW
South African playwright Athol Fugard’s biting play “Master Harold”..and the Boys was banned by his own country in 1982. It was the first time one of the country’s most celebrated writers had to premiere his work elsewhere.
For a country still entrenched in apartheid, it’s easy to see why. Rarely has Fugard’s guilt and anger over his homeland been more jarring or uncomfortable for the powers that be. It would take another 12 years for South Africa to abolish apartheid, but Fugard’s play feels like an afterword – a recollection of an era that feels archaic despite still happening less than 25 years ago.
Based on his own upbringing, and one shameful incident Fugard spent decades trying to overcome, Master Harold plays the long game instead of coming out swinging. At first, adolescent student Hally (James Daly) seems close to the two black servants working at his parents’ Port Elizabeth tea room circa 1950. Waiters Sam (Andre Sills) and Willie (Allan Louis) have been with the family for years, since Hally was born, and despite the country’s racial segregation, they all seem like jovial siblings.
Until some horseplay spills a little soup, and the power structure is revealed. Despite being the actual ‘boy’ of the trio, Hally reminds them to get to work. It’s an uncomfortable scene, with plenty more to come.
Sam has called Hally by his name from the start. The older Willie opts to call him ‘Master Harold,’ minding his place. Despite this, or rather because of it, Hally has little respect for his elder employee. It’s Sam he goes to for advice, for help with school, for everyday things he can’t talk about with his parents.
Despite never appearing in the play, his parents hang over everything. His tyrant of a father is in the hospital for complications from a World War II injury. The thought of him returning home soon has Hally miserable – the drinking and tension make things unbearable. He pleads with his mother to keep him in the hospital.
Willie has his own drama to deal with: A ballroom dancing competition he’s desperate to win. His partner has bowed out – mainly because he beats her when she makes a mistake – and he’s desperate for Sam to help him.
Hally is at first dismissive of his waiter’s problem (“I allow you two a little freedom in here
“MASTER HAROLD’. . . AND THE BOYS
(out of five) By: Athol Fugard Starring: James Daly, Andre Sills and Allan Louis Directed by: Philip Akin. At the Court House Theatre until Sept. 10. and what do you do with it? The Foxtrot”), but uses the competition as the subject of a 500word essay required for his English class. As they discuss the nuances involved in dancing, Sam and Hally reveal how it’s a metaphor for politics and their own vastly different lives.
The connection is short lived, as Hally gets the call that his father is indeed coming home and he unleashes his simmering anger on the two people who can’t fight back. Here is where the play drops its cargo on you with a gruelling, prolonged sequence that still jars audiences (gasps were followed by several sniffles at Friday’s opening). It’s a revelation of how things were beneath the civility in earlier scenes, and it almost feels like a betrayal. If you’re expecting the ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ feel goods here, Fugard stomps it with some pointed ‘n’ words and a degrading act by Hally that will give you a newfound appreciation for what some Shaw performers must endure nightly.
It’s tough on the audience, tougher on the cast, much like director Philip Akin’s other brilliant production at the Shaw Festival, Topdog/Underdog in 2011.
And just like that small, underthe-radar production, this is the highlight of the Shaw Festival season so far. Plays like this are one of outgoing artistic director Jackie Maxwell’s great additions to Shaw. Hopefully, they don’t stop once she’s gone after this season. jlaw@postmedia.com