The Drawer Boy
Written by Michael Healey
Directed by Miles Potter
tarring Tom Barnett, David Fox and Jerry Franken
t the Winter Garden in Toronto
Rating: ****
For years the literary community has debated the issue known as appropriation of voice with varying degrees of earnestness and rancour. Along comes Michael Healey with a play called The Drawer Boy, and the same theme is transformed into something poignant and dramatic. There's the power of art.
The Drawer Boy, which originated at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille two years ago and is now playing at the Winter Garden Theatre on a national tour mounted by Mirvish Productions, tells the story of an eager young actor from the city who moves in with two old farming bachelors to research their life for a show. (The action is set in central Ontario in 1972, and Healey was inspired by tales of The Farm Show, the collective work created by director Paul Thompson and his actors in Huron County in the early seventies.)
After some gentle comedy about the urban-rural divide, Miles, the actor (Tom Barnett), overhears Morgan (Jerry Franken) telling the simple Angus (David Fox) a story from their own broken past. When he incorporates the story into his show, Miles disrupts the farmers' life and the laughs give way to greater drama.
To tell you any more detail or plot might spoil The Drawer Boy for those who have yet to see it. Its story tightly structured and its revelations perfectly paced, it is a model of theatrical efficiency that creeps up on you as you watch. Indeed, one of the disappointments of seeing it a second time is that the suspense and surprises are diminished. There's more room, instead, to ponder its themes as the implications of Miles's interference, Morgan's tall tales and Angus's memories keep resonating after you leave the theatre.
In the manner of many transfers from small houses to big ones, The Drawer Boy is now all gussied up. Designer John Ferguson provides a big set featuring a stylized but overly prettified farm kitchen; Marc Desormeax offers a fussy sound design featuring a lot of country tunes and a painful whistle to mark the approach of one of Angus's headaches. Luckily, the play and the performances, which seemed perfectly wrought but small at Passe Muraille, now prove big enough to fill the Winter Garden all on their own, so that the design embellishments are only a minor distraction.
Director Miles Potter (who was himself one of the actors in the original Farm Show) and his cast reprise their excellent work. Fox is touching as the increasingly troubled Angus; Barnett is very funny as the naive and well-meaning city kid, and as the dour Morgan, Franken provides this remarkable straight man, whose seeming impassivity is ultimately the cover that hides the real secret of the play. Until May 26 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto (416-872-1212). The Drawer Boy will tour to Ottawa, Hamilton, Vancouver and Edmonton in fall and winter 2001-2002. -** -**
CORRECTION
Marc Desormeaux is the composer and sound designer for The Drawer Boy. Incorrect information ran in the Saturday Review. (Monday, April 16, 2001, Page A2)
Kate Taylor