Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

 
type
 TVTItem
 
label
 
page
 MasterHaroldAndTheBoys
 
comment
 A 1982 play by noted South African playwright Athol Fugard, "Master Harold"... and the Boys is a one-act play about racism. It is also an exercise in minimalism: it involves only three actors, a restaurant, and a black man's ass.It's St. George's Park Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, during The Apartheid Era. Two black servers, Sam and Willie, are hanging around waiting for something to happen; they practice ballroom dancing in the meantime, as both are competing in two weeks. The problem is, Willie's partner Hilda can't learn the steps right, so Willie beats her. (Well, she may also be sleeping around.) Sam is a better dancer, and Willie's speech is rendered in a "You No Take Candle" Funetik Aksent.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_3'); })The seventeen-year-old son of the (white) restaurant owners enters. Sam calls him "Hally", Willie "Master Harold." Hally, like many teenagers, thinks he knows everything, but as he chats with "the boys" it becomes clear that he takes the White Man's Burden seriously as well, belittling them constantly (though generally without malice). This despite the fact that Sam has become a bit of a father surrogate for Hally, whose actual father is a bitter drunk who lost his leg during the war. Attention is drawn to a heartwarming occasion when Hally was young, in which Sam built him a kite and taught him to fly it.Hally sets out to do his homework, a 500-word English composition on an event of cultural significance, and becomes enamored with Sam's discussion of ballroom dancing, describing it as "a world without collisions." But before Hally can set pencil to paper, the phone rings. It's Hally's mother. His father went to the hospital a while ago for pains relating to his injury, but since then has decided to return. Before anybody can stop him, he's ensconced in his bedroom, and Hally can look forward to his home life becoming a living hell. In his fury, he turns on Sam, racially belittling him, demands Sam call him "Master Harold" to show him respect, and spits in his face.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_2'); })One messy argument later, Sam hearkens back to the tale of the kite, which Master Harold had considered using for his English composition but rejected because it lacked a Twist Ending. Sam tells him what he forgot: that a few days before, the city authorities had called Harold's mother to come pick up her husband, who was drunk on the floor at the hotel bar. Their little boy Hally was the other one home, and he had to bring a black servant, Sam, to help with the pickup. Hally walked through life humiliated from then on... until Sam put a kite in the air and a smile on his face. Hally sat on a bench and watched it fly... But Sam couldn't, because the bench was "Whites Only." As the play ends, Master Harold goes back to his cold home, but Willie promises to find Hilda and apologize to her.At the very least, check out some of the talent that has been drawn to it over the years. Hally was originated by Željko Ivanek, played in a Made-for-TV Movie by Matthew Broderick, and in a 2010 movie release by Freddie Highmore. Sam was originated by Zakes Mokai and, opposite Highmore, portrayed by Ving Rhames. And the original Willie? Danny Glover.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_1'); })
 
fetched
 2019-11-29T00:12:50Z
 
parsed
 2020-06-25T09:18:14Z
 
isPartOf
 DBTropes
  / int_3ad27180
type
 The Chain of Harm
  / int_3ad27180
comment
 The Chain of Harm: Hally becomes increasingly nasty to Sam and Willie after learning that his neglectful, alcoholic and possibly abusive father is returning home.
  / int_3ad27180
featureApplicability
 1.0
  / int_3ad27180
featureConfidence
 1.0
 
hasFeature
 / int_3ad27180
  / int_9b2923bc
type
 Mooning
  / int_9b2923bc
comment
 Mooning: Sam shows his after the following provocation:
  / int_9b2923bc
featureApplicability
 1.0
  / int_9b2923bc
featureConfidence
 1.0
 
hasFeature
 / int_9b2923bc
  / int_e563bf09
type
 Insistent Terminology
  / int_e563bf09
comment
 Insistent Terminology: Hally asks, more than once, why Sam doesn't call him "Master Harold." After the argument, Sam does, symbolizing the damage their friendship has suffered.
  / int_e563bf09
featureApplicability
 1.0
  / int_e563bf09
featureConfidence
 1.0
 
hasFeature
 / int_e563bf09
  / int_f360fc33
type
 Dumbass Has a Point
  / int_f360fc33
comment
 Dumbass Has a Point: Willie provides the voice of reason during Sam and Hally's argument. In-universe, Hally treats most insights from the two black men this way.
  / int_f360fc33
featureApplicability
 1.0
  / int_f360fc33
featureConfidence
 1.0
 
hasFeature
 / int_f360fc33
  / int_name
type
 ItemName
  / int_name
comment
  / int_name
featureApplicability
 1.0
  / int_name
featureConfidence
 1.0
 
hasFeature
 / int_name
  / int_name
itemName

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 
hasFeature
 Minimalist Cast / int_83bd7eba
 
hasFeature
 Our Acts Are Different / int_83bd7eba
 
hasFeature
 Spiteful Spit / int_83bd7eba
 
hasFeature
 Theatre of the 1980s / int_83bd7eba