‘Master Harold’… and the boys

From 21 September

1950. Apartheid South Africa.

St George’s Park Tea Room, Port Elizabeth, 1950. On a long rainy afternoon, employees Sam and Willie practice their steps for the finals of the ballroom dancing championship.

Hally arrives from school to hide out in his parents’ tea room. These two men have been unlikely best friends to Hally his whole life. But it is apartheid era South Africa: he’s Master Harold, and they are the boys.

Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard’s semi-autobiographical and blistering masterwork explores the nature of friendship, and the ways people are capable of hurting even those they love.