Master Harold... and The Boys/Rubicon (web copy)

The RTC 2010-2011 Season Continues February 9 with Powerful and Compelling Drama MASTER HAROLD…AND THE BOYS

Rubicon Theatre Company continues its 2010-2011 Season with MASTER HAROLD…AND THE BOYS, a powerful and compelling drama by Athol Fugard that begins previews February 9 at RTC’s intimate 195-seat home in Ventura’s Downtown Cultural District. Directed by Rubicon Associate Producer BRIAN McDONALD, the production features DANIEL STEWART, ANTHONY (TONY) HANEY and CHRIS MADDOX.

Set in the 1950s, MASTER HAROLD is the story of an adolescent white South African torn between his relationship with the black men who have befriended and cared for him, and the old-world principles instilled in him by his father, an injured war veteran who is alternately absent and abusive. Says Director McDonald, “I believe audiences will find MASTER HAROLD… affecting in a deeply personal way. If it were simply a polemic against the policies of apartheid, it would be outdated now that sweeping change has transformed South Africa. Instead, Fugard wrote a very human play about individuals whose characters are put to the test by societal and personal forces.”

Recipient of the New York Drama Desk Award and London’s Evening Standard for Best Play, this gripping drama has much to say about how racism can be passed from one generation to the next. The play opens in a tea shop in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where Willie and Sam are discussing Willie’s upcoming ballroom dance competition when they are joined by Hally, a seventeen-year old whose parents own the shop. The three regard each other with familiarity and affection born of long and warm acquaintance. Over the years, Sam, especially, has become a mentor to Hally, teaching him to fly a kite, and helping him take pride in his achievements and overcome embarrassments related to his father. Through the course of the play, circumstances set the three characters on a collision course in which the nature of friendship and the bounds of human dignity are tested.

“Hally has grown up in a society where privilege is doled out based on race,” notes McDonald. “In the play, he makes decisions -- sometimes out of love, sometimes out of fear and need -- that will determine his future relationship not only to Sam and Willie, but to his parents, his community and to himself. The choice he ultimately faces is one that most of us face at one time or another – whether to accept the world as we find it or to reject intolerance and bigotry and try to make the world a better place.”

 “MASTER HAROLD…,”  McDonald concludes, “is a poetic hero’s journey in which the struggle between two world views – one that insists on repeating the mistakes of the past and another that seeks to heal and move beyond them – leaves audiences not with a triumphant victory of good over evil, but with the knowledge that we have a choice.”

MASTER HAROLD…AND THE BOYS begins previews at Rubicon Theatre on Wednesday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m. Performances continue through March 6, Wednesdays at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $39 to $59, depending on the day of the week. 

Talkback performances are on Wednesday, February 16 and 23 following the 7:00 p.m. performance. Tickets for students for regular performances are $25. Group discounts are also available for 12 or more. A limited number of student matinee tickets still remain for daytime 10:00 a.m. performances priced at $10. Free study guides are available to teachers, and talkbacks with the artists about the themes and issues of the play take place after each student matinee.