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"Master Harold"...and the boys is a play by Athol Fugard. Set in 1950, it was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in March 1982 and made its premiere on Broadway on 4 May at the Lyceum Theatre, where it ran for 344 performances. The play takes place in South Africa during apartheid era, and depicts how institutionalized racism, bigotry or hatred can become absorbed by those who live under it. It is said to be a semi-autobiographical play, as Athol Fugard's birth name was Harold and his boyhood was very similar to Hally's, including his father being disabled, and his mother running a tea shop to support the family. His relationship with his family's servants was similar to Hally's as he sometimes considered them his friends, but other times treated them like subservient help, insisting that he be called "Master Harold", and once spitting in the face of one he had been close to.
Zakes Makgona Mokae was a South African-American actor of theatre and film
Athol Fugard, Hon., , is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Oscar-winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Acclaimed as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world" by Time in 1985, Fugard continues to write and has published more than thirty plays. Fugard was an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. He is the recipient of many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre" from the government of South Africa. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was honoured in Cape Town with the opening of the Fugard Theatre in District Six in 2010, and received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.
Bonisile John Kani is a South African actor, author, director and playwright, known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in the 2019 remake of The Lion King and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix film Murder Mystery (2019).
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African honour. It was instituted on 30 November 2003 and is granted by the President of South Africa for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports. The order has three classes:
Yvonne Bryceland was a South African stage actress. Some of her best-known work was in the plays of Athol Fugard.
Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."
The Owl House is a museum in Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The owner, Helen Martins, turned her house and the area around it into a visionary environment, elaborately decorated with ground glass and containing more than 300 statues including owls, camels, peacocks, pyramids, and people. She inherited the house from her parents and began its transformation after they died.
Blood Knot is an early play by South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard. Its single-performance premier was in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the playwright and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah.
Nieu-Bethesda is a village in the Eastern Cape at the foot of the Sneeuberge, approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Graaff Reinet. It was founded in 1875 as a church town, like many other Karoo villages, and attained municipal status in 1886. The name is of biblical origin and means "place of flowing water".
Stephen Sachs is an American stage director and playwright. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director of The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 1990.
Paul Slabolepszy, or Paul "Slab", is a South African actor and playwright.
Boesman and Lena is a small-cast play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, set in the Swartkops mudflats outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, that shows the effect of apartheid on a few individuals, featuring as characters a "Coloured" man and woman walking from one shanty town to another.
Dennis Parichy is an American lighting designer. He won the 1980 Drama Desk Award for Talley's Folly and the Obie Award in 1981.
Susan Hilferty is an American costume designer for theatre, opera, and film.
The Space Theatre was a fringe theatre in Cape Town, South Africa which was active in the 1970s. It re-opened in late 2008.
The Road to Mecca is a 1991 South African drama film starring Kathy Bates. It is based on Athol Fugard's play of the same name.
Brian Astbury was a South African photographer, theatre director, acting and writing teacher, and founder of The Space Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.
Elize Cawood was a South African actress. Her most famous TV role is probably that of Pop in Verspeelde lente (1984) and on the silver screen opposite Marius Weyers and Peter Sepuma as the rich Afrikaner woman in Taxi to Soweto. She has also been seen in movies such as Die wonderwerker (2012) and Lien se lankstaanskoene (2012).
References
- "The Best of the Decade". Time . 1 Jan. 1990. Accessed 2 Oct. 2008. ["The Road to Mecca (1987). South Africa's conscience, Athol Fugard, proved his compassion is universal in this Ibsenesque conflict between a fiercely independent artist and a society justly yearning for order."]
- Fugard, Athol. The Road to Mecca: A Play in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1985. ISBN 0-571-13691-5. ("Suggested by the life and work of Helen Martins of New Bethesda.")
