Date: Fri 07-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: C

Location: A12

Quick Words:

Master-Harold-Danbury-Halley

Full Text:

(rev "Master Harold & The Boys" by Danbury Theatre Co., 3/7/97)

Theatre Review-

High Standards Once Again On Stage

By Julie Stern

DANBURY - South African playwright Athol Fugard has a longstanding reputation

in Connecticut, chiefly because of his connections to Yale where most of his

works have had their American premieres. Rooted in his own experiences, they

deal with the complex relationships that existed between black and white

Africans during the era of Apartheid.

One such episode resulted in his dramatic Master Harold... and the boys .

Danbury Theatre Company has undertaken the Fugard work as its latest

challenge, running through March 22.

Systematically deprived of all rights in a rigidly segregated society that

denied them access to real education or meaningful jobs, black South Africans

were consigned to menial labor, as servants to whites. The paradoxical result

was that for many white South African children, their closest confidantes, and

sometimes most significant parent figures, were black maids and "houseboys."

The ironic symbolism of this play's title - "Master" Harold is the accepted

form of address for white children, while "the boys" are men in their forties

- prefigures the drama that unfolds.

Halley, a 17-year old schoolboy, is spending a rainy afternoon hanging out in

his mother's empty restaurant, passing time with Willie and Sam, two men who

have worked for his family since his earliest childhood.

Initially the talk is all light. The two men discuss their prospects for an

upcoming ballroom dancing contest. Halley engages in a series of debates with

Sam in a mockery of his school history examination, and then with wistful

sincerity recalls his childhood visits to Sam and Willie's room, a sanctuary

of peace in a household dominated by his crippled father's drunken rage.

Halley also remembers how Sam built a kite for him out of rags and orange

crates, observing with patronizing wonder "as if a black man would know

anything about kites..." Yet against all expectations the kite flew

gloriously, and Sam went back to some job, leaving the kite tied to a park

bench while the delighted child sat there and held on to the string.

But the shadow of Halley's one-legged father looms large over the present.

Currently in the hospital, he wants to come home, which means the

responsibility of caring for the embittered and abusive alcoholic would fall

on Halley, since his mother has to spend her time running the restaurant. Such

a prospect disgusts and terrifies Halley and he reacts with the spiteful

meanness of a frightened coward.

In producing this show, the Danbury Theater Company once again demonstrates

its consummately high standards. Director Joe Longo guides his trio of actors

in capturing the ironic differences in perspective, and gaps in understanding,

which characterize a racist society.

With his armload of unread books, clad in the traditional school uniform that

signifies his membership in the ruling class, Jason Ohmen makes Halley into an

exasperatingly real adolescent. He is by turns arrogant and pretentious about

his imagined intellectual depth, then revealing unexpected flashes of honest

feeling that transcend racial prejudices.

The feeling is for Sam, a man of cheerful kindness and wisdom, who has

resisted the dehumanizing forces of the society in which he lives. Sam is a

man who could never have joined the child Halley on the bench with the

balloon, because it was a "whites only" bench, and who is forced to spend his

adult life in the squalid backyard shed that constitutes servants' quarters.

Recognizing the need of the neglected child, Sam had resolved early on to be a

father to him, providing a sanctuary from the emotionally barren household,

encouraging Halley to do his schoolwork by "allowing" the boy to teach the

lessons back to him, and building him the kite so he would have something to

look up at "in wonder."

Dirrie "Darrell" Conerly invests the character of Sam with a monumental power,

from the disciplined precision of his speech to the courtly elegance of his

dancing demonstrations, offering formal dancing as a metaphor of life, in

which all people follow a code of civility and try to avoid bumping or hurting

one another.

Conerly's is a dazzling performance, in which his dignity and strength are

unmistakably communicated to the audience, even as Halley, blinded by

presumptions of his own egotism, is unable to see them.

In the smaller but significant role of Willie, Lonnie Young gives another

beautiful rendition. Much more in keeping with the Afrikaaner stereotype of

blacks, Willie is far more childlike. Naive and impulsive, he is easily

pleased and quick to anger.

In his body language and expressions, however, Willie is always observing,

watching and listening to the exchanges between Halley and Sam with wide-eyed

thoughtfulness. Halley sees him as a pleasant clown, but the audience can

recognize the growth that is taking place.

In the end, when "Master" Harold has lashed out at Sam, asserting his

seigneurial power and thus smashing their all-too-fragile relationship, it is

Willie who reveals by an act of growth that Sam has been a father for him as

well, and in that lies the ultimate message of hope for the future.

Master Harold... is a fine play, masterfully presented by the Danbury company.

Lovers of theater should not miss the chance to see it.

Performances of Master Harold... and the boys are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm,

Sunday (March 2 and 9 only) at 7, through March 22. Tickets are $15 adults,

$13 seniors and students. Call 790-1161 for reservations.