L-R:Sahr Ngaujah, LeonAddison Brown, Noah Robbins (photo: Monique Carboni)
“Master Harold...and the Boys” may not be the best of the
many plays that South African playwright Athol Fugard has written over the past
fifty years, but it is the first one that I saw when it opened on Broadway in
1982. Since then I can rate such gems as “A Lesson From Aloes,” “Sizwe Banzi
is Dead,” and “The Road to Mecca” more highly in his canon. But that doesn’t
make “Master Harold...and the Boys” any less a memorable play worthy of
revival. And this one at the Signature Theater stands high with a fine cast and
under the knowing direction of the playwright (who also directed the original
production).
The tragedy of South Africa’s embrace of apartheid and its
effect on a people who needed a good deal of consciousness raising and love to
bridge those ridiculous man made boundaries is the theme but not the story of
this impassioned play. As are many of Fugard’s plays, this one is a particularly
courageous attempt to expose the root cause of hate among men ten years before a
new government would officially end apartheid.
The play’s setting is South Africa in 1950 and it brings
together universal truths through the interaction of three characters who
discover painfully and irrevocably how seeds planted in childhood bear fruit in
maturity. The loves and emotions of these three sensitive human beings are
entwined in a relationship that is destined to become a stage on which are
exposed the weeds of bigotry. But it is a place in which we also see a blossoming
of understanding and tolerance.
Mostly free of pompous platitudes but rich with metaphor, “Master
Harold...and the Boys” is a powerful and compassionate story of Hally (Noah
Robbins) a seventeen year Afrikaner who finds himself at the crossroads of
childhood and manhood unable to make a comfortable adjustment in his
relationship with two black middle-aged waiters he has grown up with in his parents’
tea room in Port Elizabeth and for which set designer Christopher H. Barreca
has created the realistic ambiance.
Sam (Leon Addison Brown) and Willie (Sahr Ngaujah) have been
Hally’s second family since he was an infant. The delicately balanced relationship
between them has been kept more or less subliminal until a crises occurs that detail
the crumbling of Hally’s character, . Unable to cope with the knowledge that
the Boys have mentored him through the years and nurtured a kinship that their
society is not able to tolerate, Hally stupidly and irrationally regresses to a
state of despair and more regrettably ignorance when he is forced to deal with the
unexpected return from the hospital of his disabled and alcoholic father (unseen).
As the story’s provocateur, Hally is a complex mixture of
immaturity and intelligence. Noah Robbins’ stature is on the small side but it
works as an intriguing center of politicized and social power particularly in contrast
to the hefty bodies and subservient positions of his co-stars. Robbins, who
made a terrific impression in the excellent but short-lived revival of “Brighten
Beach Memoirs,” is perfect as the conflicted Hally. His emotional outbursts and
humiliating attack on Sam are painful and as stunning to see as were hearing the
audible gasps of the audience at the performance I saw.
Brown, a fine actor whose performances were notable in two
other Fugard plays previously presented at the Signature - “The Painted Rocks
at Revolver Creek” and “The Train Driver” - brings a restrained sense of dignity
to his role as he recoils from Hally’s taunts. At first devastated, then as if
strengthened by some inner self awareness, he rallies and becomes a man in
possession of his soul.
Ngauhah, who wowed audiences with his performance in the
title role of “Fela!,” is especially interesting to watch as Willie, a man
whose tempered vulnerability becomes painful to witness as he sees the ones he
loves the most sever the ties that have bound them. I may have some quibbles about
the amount of expositional information that Fugard offers to set the stage for
the explosive denouement in his ninety minute play. Overall this is a play of
hope written with extraordinary power and insight by a playwright who has
brought true distinction to the Broadway and Off Broadway stage for over fifty years.
“Master Harold...and the Boys”
The Irene Diamond
Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center, at 480 W. 42nd Street.
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