"MASTER HAROLD"...and the boys

The Southland has had its share of memorable Fugard stagings, and the newly-opened revival of “MASTER HAROLD” at the Geffen Playhouse boasts an impressive roster of artists and creatives – onstage and off – who bring this tale vibrantly to life.

Check out production photos from 'Master Harold' ...and the Boys, written by Athol Fugard, running at Geffen Playhouse from April 16, 2026 through May 10, 2026.

Master Harold”…and the Boys begins in the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse. Ahead of the show's first performance, hear from the company about the timeliness of the show, and what audiences can expect to see.

The Sello Maake KaNcube Foundation has postponed its planned production of Master Harold… and the Boys to 2027. The delay allows additional time to address technical challenges and prepare the staging.

Following a critically praised Johannesburg season, Athol Fugard's seminal drama Master Harold… and the Boys travels to Cape Town for a strictly limited season at Artscape Arena from 9 – 18 April 2026.

Geffen Playhouse has announced the full cast for its upcoming production of MASTER HAROLD...AND THE BOYS, set to open in 2026. Learn more about the production and the cast here!

What did our critic think of A MASTERFUL MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS at The Schoolhouse Theater?

The great playwrights find imaginative and diverting ways to prick our conscience and provoke our curiosity about the mysteries of life. They force us to think about the human condition, in all its felicities and foibles, through the metaphorical use of familiar objects and experiences. Kites and ballroom dancing, for instance.

“MASTER HAROLD”…AND THE BOYS Opens FRIDAY!

'MASTER HAROLD'...AND THE BOYS at The Schoolhouse Theater!

The Schoolhouse Theater has announced its upcoming production of Athol Fugard's acclaimed play, 'Master Harold'...and the boys.

As the audience grew restless awaiting the start of the play, the near twenty minute delay had me wondering if there would even be a production. Luckily, the play started and the wait, though unexplained, was worth it. Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre's production of Athol Fugard's riveting 'MASTER HAROLD'... AND THE BOYS proved to be a captivating afternoon.

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.

Austin Shakespeare will bring together three magnetic actors for South African playwright Athol Fugard’s humorous and stirring “Master Harold” … and the Boys at KMFA’s intimate Draylen Mason Studio in a weekend of powerful staged readings January 13-15, 2023.

It is 1950, and on a rainy South African afternoon in the St. George’s Park Tea Room, Hally (Nick Apostolina) is becoming himself. He was a boy – one prone to arrogance and self-pity, certainly but vulnerable, and capable of sweetness and hope. But now he is becoming a man – a brutal man, “MASTER HAROLD”, who embraces the world’s ugliness and claims it as his own. He does this by spitting in the face of Sam (L. Peter Callender), a Black man who had sheltered him to that point from the world’s worst, including his own father. In this primal way Master Harold joins the oppressors as a way of not joining the oppressed.

Arizona Theatre Company's current production hits the mark as a historical reminder and, through masterful performances by its cast of three, depicts institutionalized racism's capability to destroy even the most loving relationships.

The Fugard Theatre's acclaimed tenth birthday production of Athol Fugard's masterpiece a?oeMASTER HAROLDa??a??AND THE BOYS has been extended for a final time due to overwhelming demand.

Premiered in 1982, the staying power of Athol Fugard's 'MASTER HAROLD'... AND THE BOYS proves itself in its multiple revivals over the years, and Eric Abraham and The Fugard Theatre's latest 2020 production is one for the history books.

Greg Karvellas is back in the director's seat for The Fugard Theatre's production of the poignant 'MASTER HAROLD'... AND THE BOYS. Having recently directed the critically-acclaimed STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT, Karvellas reveals to BroadwayWorld what he learnt about Fugard, where he is taking MASTER HAROLD, and why this historical play still resonates today.

Arizona Theatre Company (Sean Daniels, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) presents Athol Fugard's powerfully haunting masterpiece, 'Master Harold' ... and the Boys from Jan. 18- Feb. 8 at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and from Feb. 13 to March 1 at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.

A star-studded cast has been announced for a new Fugard Theatre production of Athol Fugard's masterpiece a?oeMASTER HAROLDa??a??AND THE BOYS which marks the start of the Fugard Theatre's 2020 season and tenth birthday year. (The Fugard was born on 12 February 2010.)

The National Theatre presents 'Master Harold'... and the boy, featuring Lucian Msamati (Amadeus, Kiri) as Sam, Hammed Animashaun (Barber Shop Chronicles, A Midsummer Night's Dream) as Willie and Anson Boon (Blackbird, The Alienist) as Hally, and directed by Roy Alexander Weise (Nine Night, The Mountaintop).

Athol Fugard's 1982 play, set in 1950s Port Elizabeth, is inspired by his own boyhood in apartheid-era South Africa a?' as Fugard says in a programme note, it's a?oethe most intensely personal thing I have ever writtena??. Like his teenage character Harold (Fugard's actual first name), his father was disabled and his mother tried to keep them afloat via a struggling tearoom. And, crucially, Fugard also had a complex relationship with Sam and Willie, their black employees a?' encapsulated here in an increasingly gripping 100-minute piece of atonement.

Athol Fugard's semi-autobiographical play seeks to 'exorcise' the demons of his upbringing.

The Kansas City Actors Theatre continues to provide Kansas City with some of the best dramas to appear in local theater with the opening of a?oeMASTER HAROLDa??a??AND THE BOYS Saturday night, at the City Stage in Union Station. Directed by Gary Heisserer the play runs through September 29.