Review: MASTER HAROLD… AND THE BOYS at Austin Shakespeare

Athol Fugard's "MASTER HAROLD"... AND THE BOYS premiered on Broadway just over forty years ago. A play set in South Africa during apartheid, it's a semi-autobiographical piece about a young man whose relationship with two of the family servants comes to a profound and painful climax one rainy afternoon while the young man visits with the servants in the family's tea shop. In 1982 the play was initially banned in South Africa for being ''indecent, obscene, immoral and offensive to public morals." The ban was of course, lifted, and the play remains relevant in 2023, in the most unfortunate of ways.

In this staged reading of this three character play, director Ann Ciccolella and Austin Shakespeare give us a compelling and effective experience of Fugard's powerful work, using only a small, well lit, bare stage with only three music stands as its setting. The reading takes place at KMFA's studio and event space; a contemporary spot located on the east side of IH35 - the side, interestingly enough - where city planners purposefully segregated the city of Austin through its land development codes of the 1930's.

"MASTER HAROLD"... AND THE BOYS, includes the themes Fugard would concern himself with in personal ways through his adult years: the evil of apartheid, oppression and racism. In the case of "MASTER HAROLD," Fugard shows us his ("his" being Hally - played by Corey Allen in this reading) relationship with Sam (Marc Pouhé) and Willie (Corey Allen). During an afternoon visit with the two men, Hally's disgust with his disabled and alcoholic father brings about a troubling conclusion that manifests in an outward display of an internal racism. It's a conclusion that could scar his relationship with Sam, who is a powerful surrogate father to Hally, permanently.

Pouhé plays Sam with a commanding presence despite his standing with Hally, and Allen is a quite fine Willie, despite the fact that a staged reading of this play can tend to diminish the impact of this character's quiet and important presence. Justin Duggan gives Hally the simultaneously cheery, authoritative, and innocent air of a white teen who is torn by a need to do what's right and his own racist reactions when provoked. In the performance I attended, Duggan blazed through his lines quickly enough for a few of us to have to listen fast, but perhaps this was opening night jitters. In an otherwise polished staged reading, it is the only issue of note.

Fugard's efforts to work through his own exploration of how racism has a personal effect on his life, are a gift to us some 40 years after "MASTER HAROLD...AND THE BOYS" premiered. You'll need to hurry to see this staged reading, which runs only this weekend for three performances. For a play like this, I also recommend sticking around for the short talk back with the actors and director. When you go (and you should!) keep in mind that "MASTER HAROLD ... AND THE BOYS" is a stirring and relevant piece of theatre, even as a staged reading. Oh, that it's relevance could someday be a thing of our past.

MASTER HAROLD... AND THE BOYS

by Athol Fugard

directed by Ann Ciccolella

at the KMFA Draylen Mason Music Studio
41 Navasota Street
Austin, Texas 78702

January 13-15, 2023