Harold.” Sam, who had always called his friend by the familiar name “Hally,” warns that if he calls him “Master Harold” once, he will do so forever, and their friendship will be broken. After Hally jokes about an African’s backside not being “fair,” Sam drops his pants and shows the boy the truth—that his rear is just as dark as his face. Hally attempts to assert his racial superiority by spitting on Sam. The man is infuriated and initially wants to hit the boy, but as Hally’s intellectual superior, he controls his emotions and merely calls him “Master Harold.” Signaling the end of their friendship, these words are more condemning than physical violence. Hally tries feebly to get out of the situation, but Sam takes control and guides their relationship to a fresh start. Hally learns that being a man means not always resorting to hatred and violence. The play ends with the jukebox playing Sarah Vaughan singing “Little man you’re crying . . . Little man you’ve had a busy day.”

“MASTER HAROLD” . . . and the Boys opens on the set where the entire play takes place, a tea room in the South African city of Port Elizabeth in 1950. The tables and chairs have been stacked on one side; the room also contains a few shabby plants and a serving counter with stale cakes and a modest display of candy, cigarettes, and soda. A telephone and an old jukebox are arrayed between advertising placards and a crudely lettered blackboard with the prices of some basic items. Sam is sitting at a table, leafing through a comic book, while Willie is mopping the floor and singing up-tempo blues. Pausing in his work, Willie tries a few dance steps with the mop as his partner. He is trying to perfect his dancing style for an important ballroom dance contest to be held soon. Sam is coaching and encouraging him.

It is clear that there is not much work to do and that their lives are not particularly eventful. Willie is enthusiastic and eager but uneducated and not at all reflective. Sam is more composed and thoughtful but also clearly deprived of any formal educational experience. Their lives do not extend beyond the local community and the tea room. From their banter, it is evident that they are good friends.

As Sam demonstrates a dance step, exhibiting a surprising proficiency, Hally arrives, having just returned from school. Clearly, he has a very friendly relationship with the two men. The three discuss Hally’s troubled relationship with his crippled father. The extent of the boy’s relationship with Sam and Willie is developed through reminiscences ranging back to Hally’s first tentative entrance into the “boys’” quarters before he was ten years old. Their recollections are so vivid that they seem to coexist with the present. The audience begins to realize that Sam is a kind of surrogate father for Hally, the true source of his education and moral guidance, while Willie is like an amiable older brother. The delight that Hally and Sam share in exploring major ethical questions indicates their mutual delight in mental agility and shows their respect and deep affection for each other. They seem to be wryly aware of the incongruity of this comaraderie between a comic-book-reading black man and a literate, articulate white boy.

Although the play is one continuous act without intermission, the first section concludes with a dialogue in which Sam comments on Hally’s story of a day when Sam designed and built a kite and then flew it successfully in spite of the boy’s doubts and initial embarrassment about the project.

The mood of nostalgia is abruptly altered when Hally receives a telephone call from the hospital where his father periodically goes for treatment. Hally is troubled by his father’s drinking, sympathetic about his handicap, and saddened by his own inability to understand or help. His declaration that “the principle of perpetual disappointment” rules the universe contrasts sharply with the kite story and introduces an undercurrent of anxiety. Visibly upset by the conversation, Hally retreats to do his homework.

Sam and Willie begin to joke about the dance contest, and Hally, not engaged by his assignment to write about a historical ceremony, is drawn back into their conversation. Sam explains to Hally how the dance contest is a symbol of living beauty that expresses the best of human nature through action. Hally begins to appreciate the fact that black South African culture is neither primitive nor empty; the discussion also reveals how subtle and intelligent Sam actually is. Hally responds with characteristic enthusiasm and begins to see the possibility of basing his homework assignment on a journalistic description of the contest, thus joining both of his worlds. At the height of their excitement at the vision of “a world without collisions,” however, the telephone, a harbinger of unrest, intrudes once again.

The third section of the play begins with Hally’s side of a long conversation with his mother and then his father. This marks a dramatic turning point, as his father’s imminent arrival brings Hally’s conflicting feelings of affection and uncertainty to the surface. Sam tries to offer some comfort and counsel, but the problem is too deep-rooted for his wisdom and good nature. Hally takes out his anger, fear, and frustration on Sam, baiting him until Sam is driven to respond. Resorting to the tactic of adopting a bogus position of superiority to cover up his feeling of inadequacy, Hally begins to order Sam around, demanding to be called “Master Harold.” Sam warns him of the consequences—“I’ll never call you anything else again”— but this threat does not deter Hally, driven now by shame and a kind of psychological momentum. Hally tells one of his father’s terrible jokes, involving a pun on the color connotations of the word “fair,” and Sam, now pushed too far at last, drops his trousers as a comment on the joke’s stupid central image. Hally, in desperation and confusion, spits in Sam’s face.

The long-suppressed anger in Sam and Willie surges beyond Sam’s desire to control it, and in his own pain and disappointment, he asks Willie, “Should I hit him?” The tension is riveting. Willie, in a momentary reversal, speaks with the maturity normally associated with Sam, “He’s a little boy, Boet Sam. Little white boy. Long trousers now, but he’s still little boy.” The mood softens from anger into sadness and resignation as Sam ruefully tries to accept his failure to build bridges with Hally. The boy seems helpless, and Sam generously does not abandon him. Admitting that he needs help too, he asks Hally, “Should we try again?” Too confused to respond, Hally walks off the stage. Willie realizes that Sam needs his help now, and as the play concludes, in a gesture of brotherhood, he promises Sam that he will control his temper and work on his dancing. The play closes with Willie putting his carfare into the jukebox, so that the last voice one hears is Sarah Vaughan’s, singing a consoling blues tune while Sam and Willie dance together. “You lead. I follow,” Willie suggests.

*Port Elizabeth

*Port Elizabeth. City on the southern coast of South Africa. A strictly segregated city at the time of the play, Port Elizabeth is inhabited only by white families like the family of seventeen-year-old South African boy Harold (Hally), by a small merchant class of Indian origin, and by the black servants of these groups. Most black workers like Willie, who is employed in the tearoom owned by Hally’s parents, might have jobs in Port Elizabeth, but they come into the city by bus from black townships and neighborhoods including New Brighton, Kingwilliamstown, and the other localities represented in Willie’s blacks-only dance competition. Hally has lived so long as one of the privileged whites in segregated areas that he is usually unaware that others’ movements are more restricted than his own. Until Sam tells him near the end of the play, he goes for years without realizing that the reason Sam did not stay on the park bench and fly the kite with Hally is that the bench was restricted to whites only.

St. George’s Park tearoom

St. George’s Park tearoom. Shop owned by Hally’s mother. Like most South African businesses in white areas, the owners and customers are white, but the employees are black. The play takes place in the tearoom, where Hally enjoys the power and privilege of being the owner’s son, lording his position over the employees. The dynamic added by the tearoom itself allows the play to resonate beyond the themes of history and race.

Athol Fugard is primarily concerned with the interaction of black and white culture in “MASTER HAROLD” . . . and the Boys. His dramatic devices draw the audience into the character and changing moods of the three people on stage, in a gradual widening and deepening that moves toward the heart of their beliefs and fears. He uses only one basic set, but each feature of the set is used to make an important point. The telephone is a link to the always troubling and sometimes threatening outside world, and when it rings, a major change in emphasis is signaled. The chairs and tables are arranged to no particular purpose, to stress the emptiness of Sam and Willie’s work. The jukebox remains inert until the end, when its music underscores the quiet goodness of the black men.

The world of the play, like the lives of the characters, is built essentially through language, for the imagination is the only faculty on which the characters can rely to brighten their bleak prospects. Most of the dramatic moments of the play occur through sudden revelations that carry the characters to new levels of understanding. In the early stages of the play, Sam and Willie are preparing for the dance contest, all easy banter and old jokes. They are relaxed and following familiar patterns of conversation. When Hally arrives, the mood changes rapidly, as Fugard forces the characters into a new awareness of themselves through the introduction of alternate viewpoints. Ideas build in an associative progression as Sam and Hally trade insights on political leaders and theoreticians until they both pause, glowing with delight at the agility of their argument. This plateau leads to another ascent into perception, as Hally and the men begin to reminisce about the early stages of their relationship. The re-creation of their joined history combines moments of enthusiasm and illumination with a reflective sense of the meaning of each remembered occasion. In the kite-flying scene and the description of the forthcoming dance contest, the tea room is transformed into a realm of motion and color through Fugard’s skillful use of ricocheting dialogue. After each of these efforts reaches a peak, a shift in focus reduces the intensity, but the energy is retained in reserve, so that the structure of the play is a series of leaps to a higher level of understanding.

In the most theatrical moment of the play, language becomes both an energizing agent and a pivot to establish the play’s ultimate conflict. The confrontation that arises between Hally and Sam is actually an expression of the conflict within Hally: between his corrupt legacy and his real education in humane values. Beginning in verbal combat, the confrontation moves toward a physical gesture so out of character that the world of the play stops completely, poised between disintegration and a mysterious future. The crucial nature of the exchange between Sam and Hally is underscored by the fact that they are using their wit counter to their real inclinations, exchanging insults and attacking what they had previously treasured. The sickness within South African society, the immoral system of Apartheid, explodes in a monstrous, destructive form through the words Sam and Hally use. The subconscious demon each has tried to suppress escapes and must be dealt with. The coarsening of the language shapes the mood of dangerous anger, and Hally’s desperate, anguished physical attack on Sam produces the most intensely felt moment of stillness in the play, the heart of darkness seen in angry light. It seems as if the energy of the imagination has been drained and lost. Yet between the terrible stillness that threatens to engulf the stage and the motion of life that has claimed it previously, the bridging power of Fugard’s language is employed for a last time to reconnect the dual tendencies of the South African psyche.

Separate and Unequal
In the mid-20th century, South Africa was governed by the policy of apartheid, which enforced racial separation and segregation. Strict regulations controlled matters like intermarriage, land ownership, and access to public facilities. In "Master Harold" ... and the Boys, Sam vividly depicts this division: "I couldn't sit down there and stay with you," referring to a "Whites Only" bench where Hally was seated. These laws were designed to humiliate people of color, even dictating who could sit on specific benches. Errol Durbach explained the psychopathology of apartheid in Modern Drama: "It is not that racial prejudice is legislated in South Africa. It insinuates itself into every social sphere of existence, until the very language of ordinary human discourse begins to reflect the policy that makes black men subservient to the power exercised by white children."

Fugard's Underground Theater
Many of Fugard's early plays were performed for small, private audiences rather than in public theaters because apartheid laws prohibited white actors from appearing on stage with black actors. In the 1960s, Fugard co-founded the Serpent Players, an all-black theater group composed of residents from New Brighton, the black township in Fugard's hometown of Port Elizabeth. Despite frequent police harassment, the Serpent Players continued to perform, and Fugard's involvement significantly contributed to the establishment of black South African theater.

Fugard's first major theatrical success, The Blood Knot, featured Fugard himself as a light-skinned nonwhite half-brother, exploring an individual's quest for freedom in a country that denied such autonomy. This play dramatized the ambivalence and racial animosity that poisoned many South African relationships, corrupting the "blood knot," or common bond of humanity. Although Fugard's plays voiced the concerns of the country's black majority, they were seen as rebellious by the white ruling minority. His works were often banned or heavily censored because they implicitly criticized the Afrikaner way of life. It was not until "Master Harold" ... and the Boys, which premiered outside South Africa, that Fugard's work gained international recognition. With endorsements from critics and audiences in New York and London, "Master Harold's" message reached a wider audience, despite a South African ban on its performance or publication.

The End of Apartheid
The culture of racism promoted by apartheid persisted largely unchecked throughout the 1950s and continued for the next three decades. By 1982, apartheid was widely recognized in much of the free world as a grave injustice against humanity. Activist organizations like Amnesty International fought to dismantle such an inherently racist society, going to great lengths to expose South Africa's criminal treatment of its black majority. Alongside human rights violations in communist China, South Africa's policies were considered among the most severe.

Black South Africans who criticized the government's policies were frequently arrested and imprisoned. The most renowned activist and prisoner in the South African penal system was Nelson Mandela, whose public advocacy for equality led to a life imprisonment sentence. When "Master Harold's" premiered in 1982, Mandela was already one of the world's most famous political prisoners. Despite the South African government's efforts to silence him, Mandela's message resonated globally. In 1987, while still incarcerated, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990, after twenty-seven years in prison, then-President F. W. de Klerk ordered Mandela's release. Shortly thereafter, de Klerk dismantled the apartheid system and initiated open elections, allowing black South Africans to both run for office and vote freely. By 1991, Mandela was elected President of South Africa, and his party, the African National Congress, assumed control of the government. After decades of oppression, South Africa's black majority finally achieved an equal voice in their nation.

Setting"Master Harold''... and the Boys is a drama unfolding in the St. George's Tea Room during a rainy and windy afternoon. The year is 1950, and the setting is Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The entire narrative takes place within the confines of the tea room. Although it is a small, enclosed space, the tea room symbolizes South African society as a whole. The attitudes and situations depicted in the restaurant reflect the daily realities under the apartheid system.

Realism"Master Harold"... and the Boys adheres to the principles of realism, with the actions and dialogue of the three characters closely mirroring real-life interactions. This realism is expected since the play draws from events in Fugard's own life. Like the main character, the playwright was nicknamed Hally and had an alcoholic father who caused him great shame. Fugard found a surrogate father in a black man working at his parents' cafe, mirroring the relationship between Hally and Sam. The play also captures the historical reality of South Africa during the peak of apartheid.

However, realism in literature goes beyond merely transcribing actual events; it aims to use reality as a reflective mirror for the audience. Fugard employs realistic settings and events to resonate with his audience. Although the play is based on a specific incident from his childhood, its themes of societal prejudice are universal. By portraying the profound emotional impact of societal inequality, the playwright seeks to raise awareness and, hopefully, prevent future injustices. The play is not just about the history of apartheid politics; it is a family history that highlights the evils of such a biased system.

Symbolism
Two key images dominate this drama: the kite and dancing. Crafted from tomato-box slats, brown paper, old socks, and glue, the kite symbolizes the high aspirations for racial equality and the victory of human love over prejudice and hatred. Sam made the kite for Hally to lift his spirits. A past incident is revisited where Hally's father became so inebriated at a local bar that he soiled himself. With his mother not at home, Hally had to go to the bar and request permission for Sam to enter and bring his father home. This event deeply upset and saddened the boy. Sam explains to Hally that he made the kite because he "wanted [him] to look up, be proud of something, of [himself]." At the play's conclusion, after Hally has spit in his face, Sam makes a final attempt at reconciliation by offering Hally the chance to "fly another kite." Hally responds, "You can't fly kites on rainy days." This exchange highlights the personalities of the two characters and reflects broader South African culture. Sam, like many South Africans, seeks reconciliation, wants to leave the past behind, and strives for a better future. Hally, also like many of his compatriots, recognizes his wrongdoing but feels too entrenched in his ways to change.

Dancing serves as a metaphor for life in the play. From the dance routines of Willie and his partner to the touching dance between Willie and Sam that concludes the play, dancing provides the characters with a way to understand a chaotic world. Describing his vision of a perfect ballroom—symbolically an ideal world—Sam tells Hally, "There are no collisions out there... Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else... like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don't happen."

1950s: In South Africa, apartheid laws enforce racial segregation. Black individuals are compelled to reside in specific areas and can only utilize designated public amenities.

1980s: The global community condemns apartheid. People worldwide protest against businesses operating in South Africa and advocate for divestment from the country.

Today: The South African government has officially abandoned apartheid and has elected Nelson Mandela, a black leader.

1950s: In the United States, pre-World War II racial restrictions (Jim Crow laws) are abolished. Black Americans demand their civil rights through marches, demonstrations, sit-ins, and boycotts. The Supreme Court overturns the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Throughout the following decade, the Civil Rights Movement will intensify, leading to significant legislation promoting racial equality.

1980s: Although race relations in the U.S. have improved since the 1950s and 1960s, significant inequalities remain. These issues are minor compared to the struggles of black South Africans. Increased awareness of apartheid renews many Americans' dedication to racial harmony and equality within their own country.

Today: The U.S. has implemented policies prohibiting discrimination based on race or color in employment, housing, and access to government services. While these policies have clear benefits, many conservative politicians aim to dismantle practices like Affirmative Action, arguing that it unfairly limits opportunities for qualified white individuals.

Sources
Brustein, Robert, Review of "Master Harold" in the New Republic, Vol. 186, No. 25, June 23, 1982, pp. 30-31.

Colleran, Jeanne, Modern Drama, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, March 1990, pp. 82-92.

Crow, Brian, "Master Harold . . . and the Boys" in International Dictionary of Theatre, Vol. 1 - Plays, edited by Mark Hawkins-Dady, St. James Press, 1992.

Durbach, Errol, "'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys: Athol Fugard and the Psychopathology of Apartheid" in Modern Drama, Vol. XXX, No. 4, December 1987, pp. 505-13.

Gray, Stephen, New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. VI, No. 21, February 1990, pp. 25-30.

Further Reading
Brians, Paul, "Athol Fugard. 'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys" at http://www.wsuedu:8080/~bnans/anglophone/fugard.html. This website offers notes on the Penguin Plays edition of "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys (1984), organized by page number.

Mallaby, Sebastian, After Apartheid: The Future of South Africa, Times Books, 1992. This book examines the profound impacts of apartheid's end, highlighting the challenges of racial coexistence and economic development in a newly multiracial South Africa.

"Underdog's South African Independent Film Site" at http://www.safilm.org.za/. This homepage contains links to film festivals, film schools, Showdata's SA Film Site, and other independent South African media artists.

Walder, Dennis, Athol Fugard, Macmillan, 1984. South African educator and critic Dennis Walder provides an analysis of Fugard's career up to 1984, with substantial discussion on "Master Harold."