Athol Fugard has created a brilliant play with a story that examines the hatred and pain that spring from prejudice. Set in the 1950s in South Africa, the play centers on three characters forced to come to terms with South Africa's racial policies under apartheid.
Sam and Willie (Tyrone Mitchell Henderson) are waiters in Hally's family tea shop. The course of the play is performed in the tea room, in real time, with the characters preparing to open the shop for business as Fugard depicts the nature of love and compassion.
The play builds itself up, occasionally slowly in the beginning, to reach a moment that leaves the theater silent with awe, as when the cathartic moment occurs as Hally (Roderick Hill) spits in the face of his servant, Sam (Daryl Edwards).
The final 30 climactic minutes are so undeniably strong and beautifully written that the occasional dragging in the first hour is forgotten.
The metaphors that Fugard employs are genius in conception. In one such story, Sam constructs a kite for young Hally to fly so he learns to keep his head held high with pride even though Sam is not allowed to sit on the whites-only bench in the park. These softly deliver such powerful themes as father-son relationships, heritage, love, hate and politics.
In a play with only three characters, it is important to find a cast of captivating and honest actors. Strong choices were made with casting three exceptionally emotive and commanding actors.
Strongest of the three is Daryl Edwards as Sam. With his big, drooping eyes and a robust laugh that fills the theatre, Edwards brings so much compassion and honesty to the role that audible gasps are heard when Hally spits in his face.
Roderick Hill provides the right amount of pretension and arrogance in his performance as Hally. Hill is quite remarkable, veering between his roles as a master to the other two characters and as an ignorant schoolboy who only knows the prejudice his father taught him.
With his shifting glances in moments of tension and the abuse of his girlfriend, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson makes Willie a many-dimensional character.
