Word: hal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When Naturalist-Author Hal Borland died in 1978, he left a shelf of more than 30 books, as well as thousands of "outdoor editorials" written over a period of 36 years for the Sunday New York Times. He also left the text of a volume intended as a celebration of America's trees. A Countryman's Woods (Knopf; 184 pages; $25) was completed by Borland's friend and sometime collaborator Les Line, editor of Audubon magazine, who also took the handsome color photographs that illustrate it. Borland's relaxed, graceful prose mixes botanical information (the intricate...
...when you think of it, what people do to each other...Where's progress? Every age has got its social reformer." Sam, the more intelligent and articulate of the Negro servants, easily replies, "Where's ours?" which Hally shrugs and offers. "Who knows, maybe he isn't born yet." Hal later chastises. "You've never been a slave, Sam. Besides, South Africa freed your ancestors long before the Americans...
...CLEAR from the play's onset that Hal regards Sam as a 40-year-old younger brother whom he can impress and teach and argue with. Willie joins the conviviality, but when the playfulness strikes a sensitive chord. Hal quickly reproaches him. Whereas Willie accepts the reprimand as a cowering child. Sam regards it half-seriously, as a request rather than a demand. He refuses to be treated like anything but an equal, and here the conflict begins to develop...
...edges closer to danger when he begins to probe Hal's insecurities as an older, but equal friend might. But he penetrates the boy's shallow self-esteem too easily, and the frightened Hat runs for shelter behind the person of the superior white master. Sam refuses to accept the yoke of servility. As the tension peaks, Hal spits in Sam's face. The expressions of each of the characters fires the climax without a single line being uttered: pained horror on Willie's face, bittersweet remorse for Hal, and disappointment and remarkable self-control in Sam. "A long time...
Zakes Mokae brings a sense of quiet majesty to the part of Sam--a role which he originated on Broadway, earning a Today Award for his powerful performance. Mokae presents a poised and insightful, but self-restrained Sam, fully aware that he, not Hal, has the more valuable lessons to impart. While there is a disturbing lack of tension when Sam first debies Hal's demand for proper respect, the climatic strength builds up quickly to Mokse's resigned yet underfeated pronunciation "Yes, sir, Master Harold...