"As the sterling new production attests, this quiet drama remains a powerful indictment of the apartheid system and the terrible human cost of the racism it codified and legalized...Directed with care by Mr. Fugard himself...The emotional power of the play resides at first in the affection Sam shows toward Hally. Mr. Brown gives an understated and deeply touching performance...As the more juvenile Willie, Mr. Ngaujah is bubbly and likable...Mr. Robbins is superb, as well."
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"The 80-odd minutes that precede this bitter climax is exposition, backstory and windup. Richly detailed acting and Fugard’s solid direction make the journey there fairly engaging. The grown Robbins is totally convincing as the sweet, priggish but deeply repressed Harold, and Brown and Ngaujah have an easy rapport as two men cheerfully negotiating an unfair system."
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"In the last 30 minutes, what has sometimes seemed a bit desultory and kitchen-sinkish, with a lacy overlay of pretty imagery involving kites and quicksteps, becomes gripping and then devastating...At times you might wish for more imaginative direction, or at least a more explicitly charming treatment of Hally...Even somewhat muffled, it cannot help speaking to something larger than South Africa in 1950, which was not the only place or time on earth when black lives didn’t seem to matter."
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"When a company of actors clicks, as do the three men who make up the entire cast, a great play becomes ineffable, or nearly so: transporting, transfixing and transformative, all at once. That was the impact of this South African playwright’s devastating roman à clef when it opened on Broadway in 1983, and it’s no less so in the piercing revival...A highpoint of the season."
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"Directed by the playwright himself, this deeply moving and powerful 1982 play is now receiving an emotionally pitch-perfect revival...The play receives superlative treatment from the ensemble...'Master Harold' requires patience during its lengthy, meandering build-up, before reaching its emotionally devastating conclusion. But it's worth the time, and to see it again, especially as staged once more by the 84-year-old playwright, represents a privilege not to be missed."
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"The catalyzing moment is handled expertly by the actors in this commendable revival...The political context does not feel as urgent now and, as a result, an audience shifts its attention even more resolutely to his dramas’ emotional cores. Fortunately, ‘Master Harold’ has a powerful one. Fugard himself has directed this revival, and though it comes across as talkier than some superlative past versions, it still builds potently...It’s a particular pleasure to witness the work of Robbins here."
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"Athol Fugard’s 1982 apartheid-era drama proves to be both timeless and timely. Intimate and tightly constructed, sharply political and emotionally bruising, autobiographical yet universal, despairing but with a glimmer of hope, the drama uses the fragile relationship between a white schoolboy and his family’s longtime black servants to tackle the tense cultural climate of South Africa circa 1950...It is a masterful and accessible piece of writing."
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"It's a beautifully rendered yet somewhat sleepy revival of Fugard's best-known work, which feels unfortunately diminished amid its own grandiosity...Under Fugard's steady direction, 'Master Harold' reaches its emotional climax at a slow boil. This is as it should be, but the necessarily nuanced performances occasionally drown in the cavernous Diamond Theater...Still, those looking for a traditional and well-acted production of Fugard's masterpiece won't be disappointed."
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