Master Harold and the Boys (The Pershing Square Signature Center) by Athol Fugard
Set in a tea room in a small South African town in 1950, Master Harold and the Boys is a look at apartheid both raw and touching. Master Harold is the teenage son of the tea room owner and the ‘boys’ are the two black tea-room employees, Willy and Sam.
Sam, beautifully portrayed by Leon Addison Brown, is both the heart and the moral compass of the story. His relationship with Hally, as he calls Harold, is at once paternal and deferential. His relationship with Willy, whom he is trying to prepare for a ballroom dance competition, is multi-faceted, as well. Sam is Hally’s surrogate father, playmate and the servant who refuses to lose his dignity in a time and place that demands that. Sam is Willy’s mentor, instructor, role-model and friend.
The story spans only a few short hours, after Hally gets out of school and before the tea room closes for the night. The memories, anecdotes and real-time interactions, including a call from Hally’s mother imparting news about his less-than-admired father, give the action years of backstory and heft.
Beautifully wrought and still, in this day and age, painfully relevant, Master Harold and the Boys makes us look at how far we’ve come and how very far we have yet to go.
Tickets: (212) 244-7529