Miller Makes Master Harold

Claire R. Miller is a junior Interdisciplinary Performance Major and the director of this weekend’s production of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”...and the Boys, a play set in the beginning years of Apartheid in South Africa. Review co-arts editor Christina Morgan sat down with Miller this week to discuss the politics and motivation behind the

(photo by Claire Mershon)

production, and in addition what Miller hopes those at Oberlin will gain from viewing “Master Harold”... and the Boys which will be showing this weekend in Phillips Gymnasium.

Christina Morgan: Why did you want to produce this play?

Claire R. Miller: Well, I wanted to direct something that would make people think.
This play spoke to me because it was a great opportunity to get people to think about what I wanted them to think about.

CM: I know you have cast the actors so that no one is playing their own race. Why did you decide to do this?


CRM: A couple of things. The play fit into stereotyped roles in which people of color bend over backwards and try to teach and teach and teach and I figured the audience would see the character and not the story. I wanted to ask the question: Whose job is it to end oppression? I believe we’re coming to a climactic point in our history and it is important to see the world through someone else’s eyes. The actors try as hard as they can and the audience sees where they succeed and fail and think as hard as they can. 

CM: What do you hope the audience will gain from this reversal of roles?

CRM: I hope that they will gain a new perspective on traditional story lines, just having to question who they could’ve ended up as seeing their face in a different role and having to identify with that a little bit. Basically the role reversals are there to challenge ideas of the way things are supposed to be. 

CM: The play was written by a white South African playwright and is set in beginning years of the Apartheid era. However, it does not overtly acknowledge this fact. Do you see this as an asset or fault of the play?


CRM: Originally, I saw it as a big fault of the play. We tried to make sure we were very educated about Apartheid so the actors could put things into the words the playwright didn’t. We’re also having a photo exhibit so people can see people really living in Apartheid conditions.

CM: “Master Harold”...and the Boys concerns a childhood incident in the life of the playwright. As director, how did you try to make Fugard’s experiences come through?


CRM: Well I’ve read a lot about the playwright just trying to understand who he was. I didn’t want the play read as autobiographical to the audience, just because it’s really powerful when you don’t side with the protagonist. You can be more critical when you don’t know that Hally (the main character) grew up to write this play.

CM: Now that apartheid has officially ended, do you think “Master Harold”...and the Boys is still relevant?

CRM: Yes, it’s still relevant to South Africa, here in the U.S. and Oberlin. Basically, this play is about a white person who thinks he’s very enlightened and there are two characters of color who lead entirely different existences. Right there that reads entirely as this campus to me. 

CM: Even though “Master Harold”...and the Boys specifically focuses on South African Apartheid do you think the play contains a message about race relations that applies to the United States right now?


CRM: I come from Cincinnati and basically there’s stuff that’s really rising. After we see a play we go back to our daily lives, and we are busy with our daily lives. But, for some of us that involves roaming the streets inflicting an incredible amount of suffering based on ridiculous prejudices. But I think all of us who feel we’re too busy to think about these things, even if somewhat lesser we’re on that level. People are going to break and not take it. Cincinnati could have spread, and if they don’t stop and listen and understand this minute there could been an explosive revolution, and that could be a good thing. But if we don’t want that then we’d better learn how to understand each other really fast. Now is the time and this applies to Oberlin, the school and the town. 

CM: If you could sum up the most important message in the play in one sentence what would it be?


CRM: I feel like the most important thing I get out of this play is that it’s possible to change the system, but someone has to do it, and who’s that going to be?