It is said to be a semi-autobiographical play, as Athol Fugard's birth name was Harold and his boyhood was very similar to Hally's, including his father being disabled, and his mother running a tea shop to support the family.

His relationship with his family's servants was similar to Hally's as he sometimes considered them his friends, but other times treated them like subservient help, insisting that he be called "Master Harold", and once spitting in the face of one he had been close to.

[1] Servants Sam and Willie are practicing ballroom steps in preparation for a major competition, while maintaining Hally's mother's tea shop on a rainy day.

Almost immediately, despair returns: Sam had early on mentioned why Hally's mother is not present; the hospital had called about his father, who has been there receiving treatment for complications from a leg he lost in World War I, to discharge him, and she had left to bring him home.

It has three characters, one set, and runs--with no breaks--for 100 minutes; yet within those stark confines it seems to address every important aspect of human relations.John Simon, writing for New York magazine, was measured in his review:Fugard has now perfected his way of writing plays about the tragedy of apartheid; he avoids the spectacular horrors and concentrates instead on the subtle corrosion and corruption, on the crumbling of the spirit for which the cure would be heroic action that may not be forthcoming, which the blacks try to assuage with the salve of dreams, the whites with the cautery of oppression.Frank Rich of The New York Times praised the performance at the original Broadway premiere: There may be two or three living playwrights in the world who can write as well as Athol Fugard, but I'm not sure that any of them has written a recent play that can match 'Master Harold' ... and the Boys.

Fugard adapted the play for a television film produced in 1985, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg starring Matthew Broderick as Hally, Zakes Mokae as Sam, and John Kani as Willie.

A feature film version of the play was produced in South Africa in 2009 starring Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) as Hally and Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible 1–3) as Sam.

The film was directed by Lonny Price (who played Hally in the original Broadway cast) and produced by Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat, Mike Auret, Nelle Nugent and David Pupkewitz.