Master Harold…and the Boys Gets Rave Reviews

October 18, 2007

Students discuss the powerful performance of Athol Fugard's play with visiting actors

Athol Fugard, who has called theater "the most heightened form of dialogue," seems a natural at Exeter, where student-centered discussion is at the heart of all learning. This fall, Fugard has come to campus through his play, Master Harold…and the Boys, which has been studied in classes and performed by The Weston Playhouse. This one-act, 100-minute study in intense dialogue leading to a searing climax, recently performed to full houses in Fisher Theater.

Willie, Hally and Sam on stage"It's incredible – to talk about a play in English class, then see it come alive," said Curtis, an upper who stars in plays, musicals and dance concerts at Exeter. "It's amazing to see theater of this quality performed at school."  "This was a priceless experience," added Uni, a senior who starred as Bloody Mary in last year's student production of South Pacific. "Sitting near me in the theater were two girls sobbing away at the end of the play." 

Fugard's semi-autobiographical play, briefly banned by the South African government prior to its Johannesburg opening in 1983, takes place in 1950, on a rainy afternoon in the St. George's Park Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The actors portray Hally, the white 17-year-old son of the tea room's owner; Sam, a black man who works at the tea room and has a complex surrogate-father relationship with Hally; and Willie, also black and a tea room worker. The action revolves around ballroom dancing (Willie is soon to compete in a dance competition), Hally's homework (an English composition he starts to write with help from Sam and Willie) and the culminating scene in which Hally demands that Sam call him "Master Harold," finally spitting at Sam in anger.

"I felt I was in South Africa the minute I walked into Fisher Theater and saw the stage," marvels Kasey, a senior who also starred in South Pacific last December. "How powerfully this one afternoon was portrayed!" The Weston Playhouse production uses an extremely realistic set – with lunch counter, tables, neon signs, dishes, cutlery, cloth napkins, linoleum floor, and even real ice cream, soda, cake and candy (consumed by Hally as after-school snacks).

Exeter English classes have been studying the play – some for several weeks – using dialogue and scene enactment to get to the heart of the themes. For many students, the stage performance was an eye-opener. Johnny Griffith's upper-year English students discussed everything, from the set to major themes of childishness and the father/son relationship, the use of humor and the impressions made by the characters. "I got much more of a sense of Sam's role while watching the play," said one student. Another added: "The characterization of Hally on stage was very different from my reading of the play."  "The buildup of tension was incredible," explained a student who was clearly affected by the performance, adding, "I could see it more on stage, with body language as well as the words." All agreed that the production was "awesome."

After the first performance, the actors took time out to talk with students. Questions careered around comfortably, from South African accents ("How do you learn an accent like that?") to stagecraft ("How do you keep your mind on the performance when you have no off-stage break for 100 minutes?") and more.

Griffith thinks the ability to see the play produced by professionals has added tremendously to the learning experience. "My students read and discussed the play in class, and also worked up some of the key scenes. This allowed them to talk with each other about their thoughts and feelings regarding translating the play from the page to the stage." Other English classes have critiqued the made-for-television film and written reviews comparing the stage and film versions. Approximately 250 lowers and uppers studied the play this term in English class.  

Exeter theater students also had the chance to read the play and learn hands-on about stage sets and lighting, working with Cary Wendell, technical director of Fisher Theater, and the Weston Playhouse lighting designer. "Students were involved in hanging some of the lights and curtains, preparing color gels, and helping set up the sound system," explains Wendell, who teaches a course in stagecraft.

Members of the English and theater and dance departments helped set up and strike the complex set. As a thank you to Exeter, Weston Playhouse donated some of the stage flats, which are already incorporated into the set design for Exeter's major student production scheduled for this December: Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard. 

Interested in learning more?

Read a biography of Athol Fugard…

Listen to a conversation with Athol Fugard recorded at Indiana University...

Learn more about Exeter's English department…

Read about Exeter's theater and dance department…

See a list of upcoming theatrical productions on campus…