Young Critics

Coming of age in South Africa during apartheid was harder than coming of age in society today. That’s one of the many lessons that I took from “Master Harold”…and the Boys, a play that shows that even the most beautiful friendship can be shattered because of hardships that one must deal with in their time. “Master Harold”…and the Boys will make the audience feel so connected with the emotions portrayed that they will feel that they have the same emotions themselves. To catch this captivating play, stop by Delaware Theatre Company.

Michael Philippi did wonders with the set. The set was had furnishings that complimented each other. The windows of St. George’s Park Tea Room had rain running down the sides of the windows and there was a slight chill throughout the audience by the rain. The floor was a checkerboard style that went with the 1950s decade along with the jukebox. The tables were always together, but because the day did not change there was no need to change the extraneous tables. The spotlight would close in on the actor and darken around the spotlight making the audience more aware of the actors’ pain and anguish. This technique was used when Hally was on the phone with his mother talking about his father coming home from the hospital. Murrell Horton did costume designs and they went well with the 1950s setting. The costumes of the African characters, Sam and Willie, were creased and wrinkled whereas Hally’s clothes were neat and pressed. That goes along with how the Africans’ were taken care of in relation to the Caucasian people. The costumes were in neutral shades that anyone would be seen in cafes that had a preppy feel to them.

The acting connected with the audience well. Sam and Willie were the African characters of this play, which the actors portrayed as if they were the true characters themselves. The character of Willie was more comic relief than anything else. The actor Kenajuan Bentley, who played Willie, had to act like a bystander in some parts and that can be hard to portray. The characters of Sam and Hally were elaborately developed, especially during the flashbacks of memory from Hally’s childhood and Sam always being there for him. When Sam and Hally are arguing about the family situation the audience can feel the hurt being passed from Hally to Sam and Sam to Hally. DJ Howard, who played Sam, was intense in a majority of the intense parts of the play and he displayed the character well beyond normal standards. Seamus Mulcahy, who played Hally, was in all of the dramatic scenes and he always showed a sense of superiority about the stage.

Director Richard Corley’s vision was perceived as a time in South Africa that was torn apart by apartheid in the 1950s and a boy that had the hard task of growing up during a time such as this. The vision was carried out splendidly with the authentic looking setting, good acting and the perfect script.