THEATER REVIEW : CAST, DIRECTOR GIVE ‘MASTER HAROLD’ SIZZLE

Dismissing Athol Fugard’s play “ ‘Master Harold’ . . . and the boys,” as only a drama about apartheid would be like calling Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” just a novel about whaling.

Granted, it is premature to start comparing “Master Harold” with Melville’s 19th-Century masterpiece. But like “Moby Dick,” Fugard’s beautifully crafted play seems to operate simultaneously on several levels and is loaded with metaphors. Only the passage of time will reveal whether this South African theater piece, first performed four years ago, will leave its mark as literature.

For now, it’s enough to be thoroughly entertained, perhaps in the fullest sense of the word, by Fugard’s scintillating examination of friendships, fired and damaged in the crucible of racial hatred.

The three actors in the engrossing San Diego Repertory Theatre production that opened Wednesday night reveal each of their characters at a different stage of having his humanity ground underfoot by apartheid.

Bob Devin Jones and David Toney respectively portray Sam and Willie, two black waiters. They work in a little tea room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where the white owner’s son, Hallie, is growing into shriveled manhood.

Jones plays Sam as a dignified, reflective philosopher-in-livery, who only occasionally uses his superior intellect to toy with his inferiors. The face of David Toney’s Willie is a changing map of shifting emotions. Next to the thoughtful Sam, Toney is a quicksilver, childlike Willie, charged with an irrepressible vitality that seems to bypass his brain, putting his hands, arms, feet and voice instantly, and often comically, into action.

John Zarchen plays Hallie (Master Harold)--who is nearly unmanned by his inferiority complex--as a small-minded, opinionated opportunist.

Fugard slowly builds the drama, showing us the disparity between the hopeful outlook and delicious imagination of Sam and Willie and Hallie’s impoverished world view.

In the walloping climax, Hallie suddenly imposes the rules of apartheid on his friendship with Sam as Sam tries to protect Hallie from shaming himself.

A small lapse crept in at this point. Zarchen’s heretofore marvelous portrayal of the spoiled boy went soft, and we did not see Hallie recognize that he was bringing his world down around his shoulders.

Director Michael Addison has staged the play with a sharp sense for the dramatic moment. The only real fault may be that Addison seems to try too hard for laughs, particularly with some of Toney’s eye-popping, arm-waving, shtick in the early sequences. But still, the goofy bits somehow reflect on apartheid.

Fugard appears to have ladled dual meanings into almost all of this play, from Willie’s frustration as he tries to learn dance steps--a parallel to his race’s struggle for equality--to a kite’s hopeful symbolism.

The direction and the cast are what makes this show’s ideas sizzle. Little is added by the design team, with the exception of the appropriately weak lighting and the sound of the rain falling outside. Setting and costumes are at best noncommittal.

“Master Harold” is the kind of serious drama that is produced all too rarely these days. With a production this fine, the Rep should extend it, preferably on its main stage.

“ ‘MASTER HAROLD’ . . .AND THE BOYS”

Athol Fugard’s drama, at the Lyceum Space, 79 Horton Plaza. Directed by Michael Addison. Scenic and light design, Eric Sinkkonen; costume design, Ingrid Helton; sound, Victor P. Zupanc. Stage managers, Will Roberson and Shirley Stary. With Bob Devin Jones, David Toney and John Zarchen. Performances at 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through Jan. 11.