Athol Fugard died on March 8, 2025 at the age of 92. Widely regarded as South Africa’s greatest playwright and acclaimed as “the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world” by Time magazine in 1985, he published more than thirty plays. He is best known for his penetrating political plays opposing the system of apartheid, some of which have been adapted to film. His novel “Tsotsi” was adapted as a film and won an Academy Award in 2005. Three plays that he wrote and two plays that he co-authored, were nominated for Tonys.

“Master Harold and the Boys” is a powerful condemnation of the dehumanizing impact of South Africa’s apartheid system on both the white rulers and the subjugated Black population living in separate and unequal circumstances.  The eponymous Harold is a late adolescent approaching adulthood but still infantalized by his family.  He lives with his parents in the seedy St. George’s Park Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1950 along with the two Black servants who helped raise him. Willie, played on Broadway by the young Danny Glover, is mostly concerned with the upcoming ballroom dancing contest, but Sam, played by the Tony award-winning Zakes Mokae, has been instrumental educating Hally since infancy in both his formal studies as well as how to be a man.  Hally’s mother is weak and ineffective while his father is a violent and bigoted alcoholic who lost a leg, probably in WWII and is in the hospital as the play opens.

The action all takes place in the tea room as Hally struggles with the imminent return of his father from the hospital and Sam tries to help him deal with the reality of his relationship with his father.  The action veers out of control as Hally becomes more and more agitated about his love and hatred for his father and he eventually strikes out at Sam playing the race card and humiliating him.  Sam, who has called him Hally since he was an infant, warns him of the damage he is risking but is told to refer to him as Master Harold in the future.  Sam is humiliated. Hally is destroyed.  Apartheid has claimed more victims.

I listened to this play on an audiobook while driving to Vermont.  I had uploaded it from the library in Cambridge using my phone, a modern miracle!  Listening to the voices of the actors provided a much more intense experience than reading it would have provided.  The heartbreaking story was rendered brilliantly by the original cast—a powerful near-theater experience.  Seeing it in person must have been overwhelming.  I look forward to doing so in the future.