{"id":2372644,"date":"2026-04-14T10:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2372644"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:53:06","slug":"john-kani-returns-to-master-harold-and-the-boys-at-the-geffen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/john-kani-returns-to-master-harold-and-the-boys-at-the-geffen\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kani returns to ‘”Master Harold”… and the Boys’ at the Geffen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Kani was on his way to joining the Umkhonto We Sizwe paramilitary wing in 1965 when he took a detour to a Serpent Players drama group rehearsal in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. <\/p>\n

There, Kani\u2019s friend Fats Bookholane introduced him to a company member he\u2019d mistaken for a custodian. <\/p>\n

\u201cJohn, this is Athol,\u201d Bookholane said, gesturing to the legendary South African playwright Athol Fugard. Before that day, Kani had never made the acquaintance of a white person on a first-name basis. <\/p>\n

Fugard\u2019s friendship \u2014 along with that of fellow Serpent Player Winston Ntshona \u2014 became among the most formative of Kani\u2019s life. Throughout the 1960s and \u201870s, the trio created rousing anti-apartheid protest theater that brought global attention to South African oppression at great personal risk. Kani was heavily surveilled, arrested, brutally beaten and even lost his left eye for his perceived indictments of the South African government. <\/p>\n

Now, a year after Fugard\u2019s death<\/a>, Kani \u2014 one of South Africa\u2019s most beloved actors \u2014 is returning to the acclaimed playwright\u2019s most personal work, \u201c\u2018Master Harold\u2019… and the Boys,\u201d opening Thursday at the Geffen Playhouse. The play, which centers on the fraught relationship between a white South African teenager and two Black employees who work for his family, is co-directed by Emily Mann and the Geffen\u2019s Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney, with Kani co-starring alongside Ben Beatty and Nyasha Hatendi. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture>\n
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Ben Beatty, left, and John Kani in \u201c\u2018Master Harold\u2019… and the Boys\u201d at the Geffen Playhouse.<\/p>\n

(Jeff Lorch)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

During an interview after a recent rehearsal, Kani said he views his role as the elder employee, Sam, in the Geffen production as a tribute to Fugard, without whom the actor may never have pursued theater. When Kani first met Fugard, several leading opponents of apartheid including Nelson Mandela had just been convicted and imprisoned on Robben Island, and hope for liberation was running dry. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was very angry. I had the burning desire for freedom, and I knew the freedom is on the other side of the street, meaning white, meaning I got to kill all those people to get my freedom,\u201d Kani said. <\/p>\n

Fugard told him, \u201cI can help you tell stories. I don\u2019t know how to make a bomb.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout bumping into him that day, I would never have been in the arts at all,\u201d Kani said. <\/p>\n

\n
\"John <\/picture>\n
\n

\u201cI am truly blessed that at 82, I\u2019ve been given the opportunity to tell this story again for this audience, in tribute to this wonderful man,\u201d John Kani said. <\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Kani\u2019s best-known performance in \u201c\u2018Master Harold\u2019\u201d is as the younger employee, Willie, in the 1984 film adaptation co-starring Matthew Broderick and Zakes Mokae. However, Kani played Sam in the play\u2019s 1983 South African premiere, adding an extra layer of meaning to his Geffen reprisal of the role. <\/p>\n

In his earliest appearances as Sam, Kani had to apply gray makeup to his beard and temples to be believable as the middle-aged employee. More than 40 years later, at 82, he has the opposite problem. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook at me,\u201d he jested, pulling off his cap to reveal sparse pearly fuzz. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Mann insisted that Kani was suited for the role, telling him, \u201cyou are now the right age to understand what this play is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now I\u2019m back, the same but a little older and I know a little more, and it\u2019s such an incredible journey,\u201d Kani said. <\/p>\n

Directing the show has also been an epic adventure for Mann, dating back to a series of trips she took to Soweto in the late \u201880s to speak with Winnie Mandela. <\/p>\n

Back then, Mann was recruited to write a miniseries about the activist and wife of Nelson Mandela. She knew she needed much more detail than she could glean from newspaper clippings, so she traveled to Soweto. Winnie was under house arrest, and Fugard helped Mann get in to see her. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was there, her home was shot at and nearly firebombed twice. I mean, it was rough times,\u201d Mann said. \u201cWhy I thought I was so immortal? I have no idea, and believe me, my family was not pleased. But it was an extraordinary opportunity to understand that world, and I wasn\u2019t going to let that story go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"John <\/picture>\n
\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad, but also nice to be connected with John and see the journey of [\u201c\u2018Master Harold\u2019\u201d] and this new iteration of it today,\u201d Nyasha Hatendi said. <\/p>\n

(Jeff Lorch)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Fugard once told Mann she took more trips to Soweto in a single month than he did in his entire lifetime. \u201cAt any rate, he put his life on the line for longer,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

In Mann\u2019s eyes, the South African government\u2019s disastrous bid for absolute political power is a cautionary tale with particular resonance today. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly the play and the right moment for this play in America, or maybe worldwide, because of what\u2019s going on politically in the world,\u201d Mann said. \u201cWe\u2019re slipping into authoritarianism and white supremacy again, and this play reminds you of the effects of both of those evils.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, \u201c\u2018Master Harold,\u2019\u201d which hews closely to Fugard\u2019s own experiences, is a tale of hope. <\/p>\n

With its cast of characters essentially plucked from Fugard\u2019s early life in Port Elizabeth, the play introduces Hally (a stand-in for Fugard) at a crossroads. In his late teens, Hally finds himself torn between his child and adult selves \u2014 the former adoring Sam and Willie, and the latter taught to hate them. <\/p>\n

\u201cAthol knew the poison in his father was wrong,\u201d Mann said. \u201cHe knew in his gut that this system was wrong, and he knew it early, but he also got infected. He said he was well on his way to what could have become an incredible bigot, but it was [the real-life] Sam that pulled him back from the cliff.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Hally in this play, he was destined to be a white racist. Everything around his life \u2014 his family, his school, his environment \u2014 always preach one thing: you\u2019re white, you\u2019re white, you\u2019re white,\u201d Kani echoed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the miracle happened,\u201d the actor said: Fugard emerged from that milieu an impassioned writer fixed on defying white supremacy through his work.<\/p>\n

When the cast is rehearsing at the Geffen, he added, \u201c[Fugard] is present in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"John <\/picture>\n
\n

\u201cThe greatest gift of Athol Fugard is to tell a very controversial political story, and ignore the politics of it completely and just follow the human beings. He always said to me, \u2018Leave the leaders in front, write about the people behind,\u2019\u201d John Kani said. <\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

For Geffen co-stars Beatty and Hatendi, it has been a privilege to work alongside two people who knew Fugard so intimately and understood apartheid South Africa so thoroughly. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an encyclopedia of context that John can provide us about not just Athol himself \u2014 Hally, Athol \u2014 but all of the characters in the play,\u201d Beatty said, adding that having real stories to reference has made his work onstage feel more authentic.<\/p>\n

But Mann and Kani are also careful not to restrict the play to their realities, knowing that to feel true today, the story needs room to breathe. <\/p>\n

\u201cJohn and Emily at least from my experience have been open to letting things evolve,\u201d Hatendi said. \u201cThere\u2019s still discoveries that are being made in the room that are informing the way that they play it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cweird, wonderful alchemy\u201d will only deepen with audiences\u2019 interpretations of the show, the actor added. <\/p>\n

Kani thinks about his role in this production somewhat like his role as a grandfather. He answers questions when he\u2019s asked, but he\u2019s also learning not to overexplain. Just recently with his granddaughter, he almost slipped into a lecture, when he thought better of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet her make her own footpaths and whole mark in this world,\u201d he told himself. \u201cLet her see this world with different eyes, full of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even though it\u2019s not every day, he said, \u201cI sometimes wake up that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Kani was on his way to joining the Umkhonto We Sizwe paramilitary wing in 1965 when he took a detour to a Serpent Players drama group rehearsal in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. There, Kani\u2019s friend Fats Bookholane introduced him to a company member he\u2019d mistaken for a custodian. \u201cJohn, this is Athol,\u201d Bookholane said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2372645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2372644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/John-Kani-returns-to-Master-Harold-and-the-Boys-at.com2Faf2Fe42F9200e1d44d858ac5f3b094ca.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372646,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372644\/revisions\/2372646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2372645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}