The Wharton Center is bringing “Master Harold" ... and the Boys to the Pasant Theatre Jan. 30-31.
The play, written by Athol Fugard, tells the story of Hally, a white 17-year-old living in South Africa during the 1950s. In the peak of the apartheid, Hally befriends two older African American men, Willie and Sam, and the play revolves around those relationships.
“The play has not lost one ounce of its relevancy since its original production,” said Bert Goldstein, director of MSUFCU Institute for Arts & Creativity at Wharton Center. “The issues are still very much alive and people need to rethink our positions and our ideas of race in this country.”
It is no coincidence that the show is premiering on the heels of MSU’s Project 60/50 – a yearlong initiative that commemorated the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Goldstein selected this show as a way to help keep the conversation of civil and human rights going.
“While this show does not take place on American soil, it ties in with the civil rights movements that are happening in this country which made it a great choice,” Goldstein said. “Athol Fugard, the playwright, was the perfect person to bring into the [Project] 60/50 discussion.”
Shawn Hamilton, who plays Willie, agrees that this play resonates with what is happening in America today.
“It’s about relations between people, how race effects it and how we learn to live with each other,” Hamilton said. “I think that is what the play offers and that is the vital connection to our country’s history. The same battles being fought then are being fought now.”
“Master Harold” also is going to be a part of the Wharton Center’s Act One School series, which is an enrichment experience geared toward students.
“I think for students to see this will be very revealing and eye opening,” Goldstein said. “Exposing them to something like this will force them to think through where they stand in all of this. For African American students it will resonate differently than it will for white students.”
Justin Dietzel, who plays Hally, hopes that the students can walk away from this having learned a lesson.
“It’s not over, the fight’s not over and this is such a crucial time,” he said. “But there is hope.”
For more information and to buy tickets, go here.