DANCING AROUND A THORNY SUBJECT

CAN a touching, angry and bloodpumping confrontation about race, respect and decency make for a good play if it takes a full hour of meandering boredom to cut to the chase?

That’s the divide in this revival of Athol Fugard’s 90-minute play set in 1950s South Africa.

The ‘boys’ of the title, Sam and Willie (Lucian Msamati and Hammed Animashaun), provide a great dollop of charisma as two black men working in a cafe owned by a white family.

As they polish cutlery, and work on the quick-step — Sam knows his dance; Willie is soon entering a competition — the family’s son, ‘Master Harold’, hangs around, chatting.

Alas, Harold (Anson Boon) is nothing short of dreadful. Yes, the character is an oblivious brat: first a hollow showoff and later, a menace. But the honking travesty, the evening-ruining mess that you can’t escape, is his ludicrous attempt at a South African accent, made worse by a fluorescent scream of a performance.

Think the gestures of Pixar’s Woody, but with an accent which veers from Dutch to Cockney. It’s hard to achieve a winning three-hander if one is just punching you, repeatedly, in the face.

It almost kills what should be a slow simmer of a drama. To avoid looking or listening to Harold, I found myself getting lost in the fake rain splattering on the window, or the very real clock, slowly ticking over the cafe counter. The rescue comes from Msamati and Animashaun. Their performances are rich, warm, and beautifully detailed.

The looks they cast between each other; the calm diligence with which they carry on as Harold yelps through some lines, are beautiful to behold.

When racial tension finally bubbles to the surface, and boils over into full argument, Msamati gives us thumping, nerve-shaking drama. It’s an affecting display of fury at not just the idiocy of one small racist boy, but the state of the whole racist country.

The final image, rage over, cafe drifting away, lights dimming, Sam and Willie perfecting their routine, is tremendously touching. Such a dreadful shame it takes so long to get there.