The Drawer Boy

Last updated

The Drawer Boy is a play by Michael Healey. It is a two-act play set in 1972 on a farm near Clinton, Ontario. There are only three characters: the farm's two owners, Morgan and Angus, and Miles Potter, a young actor from Toronto doing research for a collectively created theatre piece about farming.

Contents

The Drawer Boy premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1999, starring Tom Barnett, David Fox and Jerry Franken. It is the winner of the 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language drama and was published in 1999 by Playwrights Canada Press.

Plot

The Drawer Boy replays the adventures of a young actor from a Toronto theatre group who visits the rural Ontario home of two elderly bachelor farmers to "research" farm life for a new play. In doing so, he demonstrates the way in which a collective creation appropriated the lives of its subjects and changed their own interpretation of it. The two farmers, Morgan and Angus, have achieved a precarious balance in their lives together. Morgan, a tough-minded, stubborn man, cares for Angus, who has had brain damage and lost his memory during the bombing of London in the Second World War. Angus is initially identified as "the drawer boy" because he used to design buildings and has the talents of an architect. Morgan calms and reassures Angus by retelling their story - of the two tall women whom they loved, and who came to live with them in Canada. The young actor, Miles, learns, however, that this story is a fiction and that the truth is much sadder. It would, in fact, destroy their friendship. In the process of telling their story as play, however, he reawakens Angus's memory. Art becomes life. Miles is in effect the "drawer boy," delineating and creating an alternative reality. As he tells Morgan, "We're here to get your history and give it back to you." The Drawer Boy is fundamentally about the power of storytelling in creating and interpreting reality and how it can transform lives. There is much more in the play than a history of Canadian drama.

The Drawer Boy premiered in Toronto at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1999 and was subsequently produced by Ed Mirvish Productions at the more opulent Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto and the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg in 2001. The 2001/02 revival was a collaboration between the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and has toured to the major regional theatres: Hamilton's Theatre Aquarius, Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, and the Vancouver Playhouse. It has won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, a Chalmers Award, and a Governor General's Award.

The Drawer Boy received its London premiere at Finborough Theatre on 19 June 2012, with John Bett, Neil McCaul and Simon Lee Phillips, directed by Eleanor Rhode. The revival was produced by London theatre company Snapdragon Productions.

Basis

The Drawer Boy (1999) by Michael Healey revisits the origins of an alternative Canadian theatre - the collective creation of The Farm Show in 1972 by Theatre Passe Muraille. As the National Arts Centre programme for The Drawer Boy explains:

"In the 1970s a group of actors, including The Drawer Boy's director, Miles Potter and actor David Fox, who plays Angus in The Drawer Boy, working with Paul Thompson, the Artistic Director of Passe Muraille, headed into the rural heartland of southern Ontario and, after interviewing local farmers and their families, created a landmark Canadian theatrical event: The Farm Show. Almost two and a half decades later, Michael Healey went to work as an actor at the Blyth Festival and came into contact with many of the farmers and members of the local community whose stories had served as inspiration for The Farm Show. The longevity of the impact of that experience, in turn, inspired the playwright to write his tribute to the power of art, The Drawer Boy."

Awards

The Drawer Boy won the 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language drama. [1]

Reviews

Joel Greenberg states in his theatre review for Aisle Say, "Thirty years ago, when The Farm Show was first created - it is the inspiration for Healey's play - no one in the local theatre community would have guessed that such movement was possible. That was a time when the 'underground' and the 'mainstream' were separated by a gulf too wide to consider negotiable. Happily, time has provided a bridge that makes such distinctions increasingly irrelevant." Canadian novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje believes that "it is one of the few plays to create an authentic tradition in our culture," and former Globe and Mail critic Kate Taylor states that it "is fast turning into a Canadian classic."

The London premiere of the play, presented by Snapdragon Productions at the Finborough Theatre, was praised by the critics. The Guardian called the play "a landmark in Canadian theatre", and The Stage praised the play as a "modern classic in the making". In her five-star review for WhatsOnStage.com, Amy Stow praised the production as "delicately and sympathetically approached by director Eleanor Rhode, who skilfully draws out the humour within each relationship, and creates an immersive world which the audience can simply sink into."

Film adaptation

Arturo Pérez Torres and Aviva Armour-Ostroff directed the 2017 film adaption The Drawer Boy . The film was shot in Ontario, starring Stuart Hughes as Angus, Richard Clarkin as Morgan, and Jakob Ehman as Miles. It won best feature at several festivals including the Canadian Film Festival, the Heartland Film Festival and the Anchorage International Film Festival. [2] The film was released in theaters and on Video on Demand in November 2018 by the streaming media service HighballTV. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Canada</span> Canadas contemporary theatre

Canada's contemporary theatre reflects a rich diversity of regional and cultural identities. Since the late 1960s, there has been a concerted effort to develop the voice of the 'Canadian playwright', which is reflected in the nationally focused programming of many of the country's theatres. Within this 'Canadian voice' are a plurality of perspectives - that of the First Nations, new immigrants, French Canadians, sexual minorities, etc. - and a multitude of theatre companies have been created to specifically service and support these voices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel MacIvor</span> Canadian actor and director

Daniel MacIvor is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director, and film director. He is probably best known for his acting roles in independent films and the sitcom Twitch City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Passe Muraille</span> Canadian theatre company

Theatre Passe Muraille is a theatre company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Michael Healey is a Canadian playwright and actor. He graduated from the acting programme at Toronto's Ryerson Theatre School in 1985. His acting credits include the plays of Jason Sherman and George F. Walker.

Kate Lynch is a Canadian film, television and stage actress, drama teacher, theatre director and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Passe Muraille production history</span> Canadian theater company

Theatre Passe Muraille is a theatre company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The following is a chronological list of the productions that have been staged since its inception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Richards</span> Canadian writer

David Christopher Richards, best known as Christopher Richards is a Canadian playwright, theatre designer and casting director.

Kathleen Elizabeth McDonnell is a Canadian author. She has been writing plays, fiction and non-fiction for both adults and young audiences since the late 1970s, and has also been a freelance broadcaster for CBC Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anusree Roy</span> Canadian writer

Anusree Roy is a Canadian award-winning writer of plays, television, film and libretto. She is also an actress.

Ronald Pederson is a Canadian (Métis) actor, comedian and theatre director who has worked extensively throughout Canada and in the United States. He has performed with most of Canada's major theatres including The Stratford Festival, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Citadel Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, The Arts Club, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Young Centre, The Canadian Stage Company, The Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Soulpepper and The SummerWorks Festival. Pederson has also worked extensively in television and may be best known for his Canadian Comedy Award-Nominated work and his three seasons on Fox Television's MADtv.

Paul Thompson O.C. is a Canadian playwright and theatre director. Best known for his term as artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, Ontario from 1970 to 1982, Thompson was known for pioneering techniques of collective creation, in which actors, playwrights and directors would collaborate on the creation of a play through field research and acting improvisations. Plays on which Thompson was credited as a primary or collaborating writer during this era included Doukhobors (1970), The Farm Show (1972), 1837: The Farmers' Revolt, I Love You, Baby Blue (1975), Far As the Eye Can See and Maggie and Pierre.

Eleanor Rhode is a British Theatre Director and Artistic Director of Snapdragon Productions, which she founded with Producer Sarah Loader.

Snapdragon Productions is a London theatre company run by producer Sarah Loader and director Eleanor Rhode.

Thomas Hauff is an Austrian-born Canadian actor. He is most noted for his performance in the 1979 film Summer's Children, for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor at the 1st Genie Awards in 1980.

Janet Amos is a Canadian theatre actress, director, educator and playwright.

The Drawer Boy is a Canadian drama film, which was directed by Arturo Pérez Torres and Aviva Armour-Ostroff, and released in 2017. An adaptation of Michael Healey's play The Drawer Boy, the film stars Jakob Ehman as Miles, a young actor who takes a job as a labourer on a farm owned by lifelong friends Morgan and Angus, but finds that his presence has a destabilizing effect on the men's friendship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Kamino</span> Canadian actress, writer, director, teacher and painter

Brenda Kamino is a Canadian actress, teacher, writer, director and painter. She is best known for over forty years of theatre work, numerous screen roles, and for playing Dot Yasuda in the TV series Carter.

Layne Coleman is a Canadian actor, playwright and theatre director, most noted as a former artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille. Originally from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, he first became prominent as a cofounder and artistic director of the 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon in the 1980s.

Baņuta Rubess is a Canadian theatre director, playwright, and professor. She co-wrote This is For You, Anna as a member of the Anna Project. Rubess was a co-recipient of the 1988 Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for children's theatre for her play Thin Ice.

Gord Rand is a Canadian actor and playwright. He is most noted for his recurring role as Det. Marty Duko in the television series Orphan Black, for which he was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017.

References

  1. ↑ "Past GGBooks winners and finalists". Governor General's Literary Awards. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  2. ↑ "The Drawer Boy". HighballTV. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  3. ↑ "Streamer Highball.TV launches with Canadian acquisition". Playback Online. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-12-10.

Healey, Michael. The Drawer Boy . Toronto, Ontario: Playwrights Canada Press. Photos courtesy of Theatre Passe Muraille

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.