HARD. Artur has been belted, caned, switched, tawsed, whipped and flogged, but has never been beaten with a prison strap. The excruciating initiation the Master provides is punctuated as always by Artur’s characteristic soft weeping. Under all this quiet agony is the deep, harrowing pain that is the trademark of the prison strap. After 10 dozen strokes, the Master gives Artur a break but the sharply swung flogging is not what Artur has in mind. Everything remains brutal and unpredictable to the end.