Coming of age

On coming of age, with "Master Harold" director Brian McDonald

February 7, 2011 at 1:24pm

RTC’s own Brian McDonald is back at the helm with our imminent production of "Master Harold...and the Boys," which opens this week. Brian recently sat down with RTC’s resident writer to describe the challenges of this production. 

RTC:“Master Harold... and the Boys” opens this week. Wow, this is powerful stuff.

BM: The play speaks to us on many many levels-- but I think ultimately it’s really about how we treat people. It’s also about the influence of the establishment and how that dictates what we think and say and believe. “Hally” -- Master Harold -- is a very young man, torn between the friendships in his heart that conflict with the mandates of his background and society. In that sense it’s a coming of age story.

RTC: There is such appeal in the idea “coming of age” -- we’re ALL experiencing coming of age stories, living them, all the time. We all find ourselves standing at crossroads -- every single person that pulls themselves out of bed might that day have their humanity tested, might have the chance to define who we are, what we stand for, frequently in the context of  our relationships, and how we treat other people.

BM: I think that’s what Athol Fugard is really asking us to look at and examine in this play, with a couple of ideas: one, that we always have to keep striving for the dream, keep striving for something better. Second, do we have the courage to stand up to the tidal forces of our lives -- our institutions, our parents, our authority figures -- to face their mandates, and when they diverge from the voice of our heart, can we make a better choice?

RTC: That’s the idea -- that’s how art meets our own lives in a way that resonates for us-- so that South Africa 1950 still speaks to us directly.

BM: Well, we DO have a choice; we can make a better decision. We may not know what that is, but we CAN take what we’ve learned today and apply it to our lives tomorrow. I think, on that basis, there’s a lot of hope in this play.

RTC: With the play’s namesake, our “Master Harold” -- you took quite a leap in casting.

BM: Yes. Daniel Stewart, who plays “Hally,” like Hally, is seventeen years old. The majority of the time when we see people play this role, they are much older, playing seventeen. But it wasn’t like we settled for somebody because we wanted a seventeen year-old-- we looked at a LOT of people, and suddenly this kid walks in from Santa Clarita, and he was perfect.

I think our audiences will identify with him, I think they’ll feel for him and care for him, and ultimately feel like he’s capable of doing the right thing tomorrow.

RTC: You come to this post, as the play’s director, with the experience of having played Daniel's part -- you’ve been “Master Harold” as an actor. Quite a perspective shift.

BM: As an actor, I can always go out on stage and keep trying different things each night -- within the boundaries created by the other actors and the director. There’s always this chance to do it again. As a director, though, once the show is up, I’m done-- I have to be able to let go. So my job in this time period, right now, is to create as much of a foundation as possible, to create a trajectory that can be sustained through the show. This isn’t unique to the theatre; this is what businesses do all the time-- everybody has to have a defined and clear structure from which to operate.

And once it’s done, there’s no going back-- I can’t go back. So the real adventure is now-- we have to explore (playwright) Fugard’s truth, then we have to find that truth within ourselves, and be okay with it. We deal with difficult things here -- as I director, I’m asking “how do I get a seventeen year-old white kid to turn to a forty-five year-old black man, and be able to say and do the things in this play?” The only possible answer is that I have to help create a safe environment. 

We humans are so complex, and it’s not like there’s a road map-- there are no directions for us to easily or safely get through this play. So we have to dig.  It’s a very, very difficult thing we’re trying to do. You have to take people to a certain point, so that each night, they can open up -- to the material, to the actors, to the audience; secure, relaxed to the point of openness, so we can receive, and respond. That’s when you see magic happen in the theatre.