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Syracuse Stage’s 2020-21 season will conclude with the streaming of Athol Fugard’s award-winning “‘Master Harold’… and the Boys” in video-on-demand format from Wednesday to July 4.

In January, the theater announced that it would use a video-on-demand format to stream the second half of its 2020-21 season. Audience members can purchase a link to stream the show through Syracuse Stage’s website.

The play is one of the most ambitious offerings by the company, Syracuse Stage artistic director Bob Hupp said in a press release. Fugard, who wrote the play, is considered one of South Africa’s greatest playwrights, and “‘Master Harold’… and the Boys” is his most autobiographical work, according to the release. The play is “the most intensely personal thing” Fugard has ever written, per Syracuse Stage’s description of the play.

The one-act play takes place on a rainy afternoon in a tea room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It focuses on Hally, who Fugard modeled after himself, and Willie and Sam as they spend an afternoon together at the tea room while Hally’s mom visits her husband in the hospital. The family of Hally, who is a white teenager, owns the tea room where Sam and Willie, who are Black, work, and the play depicts discrimination and injustices from South Africa’s apartheid.

Gilbert McCauley directed the company’s final play of the season, which was filmed in Syracuse Stage’s Arthur Storch Theatre by Black Cub Productions. The cast introduced two new members to Syracuse State productions: South African actor and opera singer Phumzile Sojola playing Willie and Nick Apostolina playing Hally. L. Peter Callender plays Sam, returning to the theater where he made his debut over 40 years ago.

“Once it became clear that our 20/21 season would happen online, we worked to select plays that we felt could be effectively translated to the digital experience,” Hupp said in the release. “Here we are at the conclusion of that experiment with ‘‘’Master Harold’ … and the Boys,” in many ways our most ambitious offering. It’s a production that brings to the fore the collective artistic learnings developed over the course of this season.”

Published on June 15, 2021 at 12:31 am

Contact Louis: louis@dailyorange.com | @JBL__98