TimeLine has partnered with Court Theatre and Remy Bumppo Theatre to present Fugard Chicago 2010. Visit for details, ticket discounts and more.
by Hedy Weiss, Theater Critic
published January 26, 2010
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Pay close attention to the punctuation in the title of Athol Fugard’s 1982 play, “‘Master Harold’... and the boys,” now receiving a winning revival at TimeLine Theatre. It tells you much of what you need to know about the painful human dynamics at work in this luminous drama — a work born out of the racial divide in apartheid-era South Africa, but one that remains enduringly vivid as a meditation on love, loss, anger, entitlement and pride.
The Master Harold whose name appears in quotes is more familiarly known as Hally (Nate Burger). He is a smart but deeply unhappy, under-achieving 16-year-old white boy — a version of the playwright as a young man. His mother runs the St. George’s Tea Room in the town of Port Elizabeth (Timothy Mann’s picture-perfect set is a dream). His father is an angry, crippled alcoholic, forever in and out of hospitals and bars, and long a painful embarrassment to his son.
As for the “boys” of the title, they are the two adult black men who have long worked as waiters in the tea room. Ever since Hally was a tot, Sam (Alfred H. Wilson), the older of the two, has been something of a surrogate father to him, while Willie (Daniel Bryant) might be the older brother.
But the time is 1950, and while such bonds of the heart between whites and blacks certainly exist, they cannot be fully acknowledged. And the insidious nature of deeply entrenched racism is such that even the most intimate connections can be destroyed in a heartbeat. And so they are here, as a series of events (principally the much-dreaded release of Hally’s dad from the hospital), triggers an outburst by the boy that will rupture long years of shared affection and learning between him and Sam.
Fugard is a writer of charm and humor and heart who has great insight into human behavior. More teacher and revealer of truth than “social reformer,” the wide impact of his plays is rooted in their humanistic spirit as opposed to strident politicking. He also has a wonderful gift for weaving metaphors into the fabric of his stories. Here, a ballroom dancing competition is chief among them, as is a memory of kite-flying and a most engaging exercise involving a list of heroes.
The TimeLine actors (neatly adapting South-African accents) move unerringly under Jonathan Wilson’s fervent direction. Burger, a senior at Loyola University, expertly captures Hally’s half-baby, half-man volatility. And Bryant, with his brilliant smile and high energy, captures his character’s quicksilver spirit.
But it is Sam who is the moral center of this play. And Alfred H. Wilson — as a man of experience, inner grace and quiet anguish who is driven to explode — is ideal. He is a true gentleman and unheralded “master” in this “bloody awful world.”
Note: “‘Master Harold’ is the first of three plays to be produced by as many theaters here this season. For complete information go to: .
