‘Master Harold'…and the Boys

Athol Fugard's acclaimed play (previously produced as a 1985 made-for-TV movie) is now an almost straight-to-DVD feature by director Lonny Price, who starred in the original 1982 Broadway production. Set in South Africa in 1950, the story focuses on the fraying relationship between white 17-year-old Hally (Freddie Highmore) and Sam and Willie (Ving Rhames, Patrick Mofokeng), two middle-aged black men employed in his family's tea room business. The emotionally isolated Hally is upset that his racist, alcoholic father is returning home after being hospitalized for complications related to a wartime injury that cost him a leg, and the young man takes his anxiety out on Sam and Willie, who have long held affection for the lad. Price expands on Fugard's text with a harshly effective opening sequence outlining the apartheid-era indignities and injustices facing Sam and Willie in their daily lives, including a brutal confrontation in which a white policeman forces them to produce their identity papers. ‘Master Harold'…and the Boys is also peppered with multiple flashbacks that provide in-depth detail about Hally's difficult childhood. Unfortunately, this version never quite clicks, mainly because of a lack of chemistry between its three stars. Highmore's Hally is much too shrill to earn any degree of audience empathy, while Rhames (with an unconvincing wig and accent) and Mofokeng fail to elevate their characters above the level of one-dimensional clichés. Optional. (P. Hall)