Peter Feldman
03/23/2010 09:12:48
Peter Feldman: "Master Harold ... and the Boys" has resurfaced in Johannesburg after a number of years.
It has a new director, a new cast and a fresh look by director James Ngcobo at one of Athol Fugard's most celebrated works.
The last time I recall seeing this production was more than 20 years ago at the Market Theatre and it left an indelible mark because it encapsulated a South Africa of the 50s viewed through the eyes of a noted playwright who was fuelled by incidents from his own childhood.
Apartheid was still very much alive when this play was written and when I first saw it Fugard's commentary proved a stinging indictment of South Africa's apartheid policy at the time. It hit home like a sledgehammer because it reduced grand apartheid to more human terms.
This new production still retains the elements that made the original ground-breaking work and the acting is just as intense.
The world has changed certainly since the play was first premiered with the demise of apartheid, but the universal theme of brotherhood between men still exists.
James Ngcobo's production proves that the power and quiet majesty of this play has not diminished with time -even though the impact is not as compelling.
One of the shining lights of this version is Pakamisa Zwedala as Sam, the older and wiser of the two black servants working at St George's Tea Room in Port Elizabeth in 1950. He commands the stage with compassion and understanding and his interaction with Daniel Buckland's Hally is a beautifully balanced reading as the mood changes dramatically from chummy light-hearted banter between master and servant to a more menacing confrontation which places politics into its truer perspective.
Sam and his fellow worker, the more subservient Willie (Nat Ramabulana), have served Hally's mother in the tea room for years and there's a certain rapport that exists between them and the boy Hally. They behave as old friends should, knowing that certain boundaries between appropriateness and offence are there, yet still discovering a few new ones as circumstances dictate.
A brilliantly executed aspect of the play is when Hally contrives to write his school paper using ballroom dancing as a metaphor for race relations.
The production is solid and highly entertaining, yet a slightly worrying aspect is Daniel Buckland whose physical appearance as a teenager isn't convincing.
Hally is a potent character whose destructive streak manifests after he is told by his mother that his crippled and alcoholic father is about to return home from hospital - a signal for Hally to lash out at his workers.
Where the play eventually stands or falls is in the pivotal scene where a blistering exchange takes place between Hally and Sam, his surrogate father, which leaves Hally in a confused state of mind - and this is superbly executed.
As Willie, Nat Ramabulana, provided a consistent performance in what is the play's least textually showy role.
Also, Wesley France's subtle mood lighting, Thando Lobese's costumes, Gregory Maqoma's choreography and Nadya Cohen's evocative set, complete with a jukebox, all contributed towards creating a picture of a world where, unsurprisingly, nothing is simply black and white.
A new generation of theatre-goers will certainly derive benefit from watching a master storyteller at work whose use language is simple but always effective.
"Master Harold ... and the Boys" is on at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, until 10 April.
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