The Drawer Boy...

[fajrdrako]

Yesterday I went with Beulah to see The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey, the play currently running at the theatre where I work.

It was very good - one of those things where a light and potentially funny situation turns dark as more and more is revealed about the characters. A young actor (in the early 1970s) comes to stay with two middle-aged farmers, to do research for a play about farming. Learning about their past, he weaves their experiences into his drama, but that in turn sparks dangerous changes in their lives.

Good performances, though if I'd have been the director I would have staged it a little differently. I particularly liked the

At several points it struck me as very Canadian - the tone of the play, the themes involved, the low-key approach to both the comedy and the tragedy. All very effective, but how would it play in another country? I don't know.

Comments

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

You have intrigued me; I wish I could have seen this. I wonder if it would have turned into another of my "the two of us saw two different movies [plays]" thing, as with Iceman and Brokeback Mountain and others? Meaning, because I have familiarity with farmers and farming, would the same bits have been comedy to me as to you, and would the changes brought about in the play have been less, or more, striking to my mind...? Interesting to ponder.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One of the running gags in the play is that the farmer (Morgan) keeps telling the city-boy actor (Miles) more and more outrageous stories about farm life - one morning he makes him get up at 3 am to rotate the crops. And then Miles pulls a twist on this at the end. Very cute.