Review: Gripping ‘”Master Harold”…and the Boys’ at Geffen Playhouse
- Anita W. Harris
- Apr 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 19
South African playwright Athol Fugard’s “’Master Harold’…and the Boys” was first staged in 1982, before apartheid ended in 1990, but set in 1950, two years after that racially segregationist policy was implemented. The play features two Black South African men and the younger white “Master Harold” (or Hally) who is buddies with them — to a point.
The Geffen Playhouse’s current production of this compelling drama is nearly flawless. Beowulf Boritt’s beautiful scenic design of the play’s tin-roofed tearoom — featuring actual rain — sets the stage for three stellar actors to bring the story to life in a way that transcends its fraught time to move us deeply today.
Venerable actor, director and activist John Kani is brilliantly cast as Sam, the older of two workers employed by Hally’s parents to work in their tea house, furnished with tables, chairs and a counter, surrounded by large paned windows. The other worker is Willie, delightfully and fluidly played by Nyasha Hatendi, whom gray-haired Sam is teaching to ballroom dance while no customers are around.
In walks sandy-haired Hally (a thoroughly convincing Ben Beatty) in his school uniform, wet from the rain, grabbing a seat at one of the tables and engaging in familiar conversation with the men. Hally is a typical teen trying to figure out who he is and what he stands for, grappling especially with his war-injured father’s alcoholism, from whose violence he sought refuge in Sam and Willie’s company as a boy.
In very natural language (South African accents coached by Deborah Hecht), the men spar with Hally about his academics — the teen sometimes condescending toward the less educated but patient and wise Sam — and reminisce about how Sam once made a kite for the boy. All is chummy until a phone call from Hally’s mother reveals that his father is being released from the hospital and will return home soon.
This news rattles Hally, but instead of expressing his fear, he acts out toward Sam and Willie, adopting some of his father’s bullying racism and demanding to be called “Master Harold” as warranted by apartheid and as the shop owner’s son.
From here, Fugard’s writing doesn’t back down from fully engaging Sam’s and Willie’s reactions, and Hally’s counterreactions, in very tense dialogue and heartbreaking behavior, making bare the ways people who love each other can hurt each other deeply (drawing tears to the eyes of more than one audience member, me included).
Sound design (by Noel Nichols, Bailey Trierweiler and Daniela Hart for UptownWorks) is the only technical element that will hopefully improve as the run continues to allow the actors’ words to come across a bit more sharply and clearly, especially in light of their accents.
Co-directed by Emily Mann, a champion of Fugard’s plays in the US, and Geffen artistic director Tarell Alvin McCraney, this superbly enacted production of “’Master Harold’…and the Boys” is otherwise executed with exquisite care — a fitting tribute to the playwright who passed away last year. Though apartheid officially ended decades ago, its racist principles have not, fostered by fear that begs to be tempered by love.
“’Master Harold’…and the Boys” continues through May 10 at the Geffen Playhouse’s Gil Cates Theater, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, with shows Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 310-208-2028 or visit GeffenPlayhouse.org. Run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
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