The Drawer Boy Play Themes
THE DRAWER BOY
THE OFFICIAL GRAND THEATRE STUDY GUIDE
471 Richmond St.
London, ON N6A 3E4
Box Office: 519-672-8800
Online: www.grandtheatre.com
The Drawer Boy
About the Writer
Michael Healey is a Canadian playwright and actor. He was born
August 25, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario and was raised in Brockville,
Ontario.
In 1985, Healey graduated from the acting program at Ryerson
Theatre School in Toronto. His acting credits include The League of
Nathans, Reading Hebron, Three in the Black, Two in the Head, The
End of Civilization, The Optimists and Better Living. In 1995 Healey encountered the history of The Farm Show while acting at Blyth
Festival which in turn was inspiration for his own play, The Drawer
Boy.
Healey began writing plays in …show more content…
the early ‘90s. He produced and acted in his first play, Kicked, in 1996 at the Toronto Film Festival. Kicked continued to tour across Canada and Australia and won a Dora Mavor
Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 1998.
In 1999 he produced his first full-length play, The Drawer Boy, at Theatre Passe
Muraille in Toronto and remounted it by Ed Mirvish Productions at the
Winter Garden Theatre. The Drawer Boy received international acclaim and has been produced internationally and across North
America. It has been translated into German, French and Japanese.
The Drawer Boy has won the Governor General’s Award for Drama in
1999, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play, A Chalmers
Canadian Playwriting Award and the Governor General’s Literary
Award.
In 2002 Healey co-authored the Road to Hell with Kate Lynch and his play Plan B premiered at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, winning a Dora
Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play. In March of 2003 he also premiered one of his plays, Rune Arlidge, a three-act tragedy, at the
Tarragon Theatre. It was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 2004.
In 2005 Healey performed in his own play, The Innocent Eye Test, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
He has also appeared in the CBC TV series, This is Wonderland.
Healey continues to work as an actor and a playwright. He is a writer at the Tarragon Theatre and recently premiered his latest …show more content…
comedy,
Generous, in October of 2006.
About the Director
Gina Wilkinson’s directing credits include: Moonlight and Magnolias;
Relatively Speaking, Over the River and Through The Woods (The
Grand Theatre); The Woman in White (Theatre Aquarius), Goodnight
Grand Theatre Study Guide 2008/09 Season
The Drawer Boy
Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (BeMe Productions, Munich,
Germany); Turn of the Screw, Grace (Belfry Theatre); Eyes of Heaven
(Blyth Festival - premiere); Whistle Me Home, FishShack
(SummerWorks); Mick Unplugged, Mary’s Wedding (Alberta Theatre
Projects - premieres), Guide To Mourning (Globe Theatre), For the
Pleasure of Seeing Her Again (Festival Antigonish)
Gina has performed as an actor in almost every theatre in Canada, most recently at the Tarragon Theatre in Morris Panych's
Benevolence.
Recent film and television appearances: WiseGal (Lifetime); This is
Wonderland (C.B.C series; two seasons-recurring role)
As Playwright: My Mother’s Feet (premiered at The Canadian Stage
Co., 2005). At The Crossroads (adaptation of Sophocles’ Theban
Cycle, Concordia University, 2006), Whistle Me Home (Summerworks
Theatre Festival)
Gina will be directing her own play My Mother's Feet in Munich, and the premiere of The Good Egg by Michael Maclennan at Alberta
Theatre Projects.
About the Play
The Drawer Boy began in the summer of 1972 when a group of actors headed to Clinton in Southwestern Ontario to interview local farmers and their families and learn about their lifestyle in a rural community.
The group consisted of Janet Amos, Ann Anglin, David Fox, Al Jones,
Fina MacDonnell, Miles Potter and director Paul Thompson. After several years of hard work and research by the students and their teachers, The Farm Show was created. The actors attempted to dramatize what they had learned in a daily improvisational session using the content that had come directly from the farmers they had interviewed. Word about the show spread and popularity grew and finally the show was written down on paper. The first shows did not have costumes, lights, sets, and weren’t even presented in a theatre.
The sessions were held in a barn and used hay bales as seats. The first production of The Farm Show was staged by Theatre Erindale, the first play to be staged by the company.
Over 25 years later in February 1999, The Drawer Boy, written by
Michael Healey, was produced and premiered at Theatre Passe
Muraille in Toronto. While acting at the Blyth Festival, Michael Healey met with many local farmers who had inspired The Farm Show.
Michael could not believe the impact those actors had had on the
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The Drawer Boy
community and decided to write The Drawer Boy.
Basing the play on The Farm Show and the shows’ history, Michael tells a story of a young actor from the city who goes to a rural farmhouse to research two elderly bachelor farmers for a new play.
The play is about interpreting reality through storytelling and the effects it can have on lives.
Miles Potter, David Fox and Paul Thompson, original creators of The
Farm Show, were also involved with the original production of The
Drawer Boy. Miles Potter directed the production while David Fox played the character Angus. Paul Thompson was the Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille at the time and worked to produce the production. Original Company of
The Drawer Boy
Morgan: Jerry Franken
Angus: David Fox
Miles: Tom Barnett
Director: Miles Potter
Set Design: Stephan Droege
Lighting Design: Steve Lucas
Costume Design: Michelle Vanderheyden
Sound Design: Jonathan Rooke
Stage Manager: Erica Heyland
Production Manager: Mark Ryder
Technical Director: Jonathan Rooke
After its premiere, The Drawer Boy was produced by Ed Mirvish
Productions at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto and then in
2001 at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. Other productions have been produced at the National Arts Centre, Edmonton’s Citadel
Theatre and Vancouver Playhouse among others.
The play won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, a Chalmers Award and a Governor General's Award .
Play Synopsis
Revisit 1972 with an aspiring young actor from Toronto who plants himself in rural Ontario to research country life for a theatrical script he is developing. During his extended visit with two farmers, not overly thrilled with the self-involved city dweller, he unwittingly
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The Drawer Boy
stumbles upon and unravels decades of mystery.
Setting: The play takes place in a farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada.
ACT I
The play opens with Angus, a farmer in his fifties, making a sandwich.
Morgan, the other owner of the farmhouse and also in his fifties, enters and starts eating the sandwich Angus has prepared for him.
There is a knock at the door and Angus goes to answer it, finding a young man standing in front of him. The man introduces himself as
Miles and explains that he is with a group of actors from Toronto. He explains that they are here to study the lives of farmers in the community to assist in creating a play about farmers. Miles asks if they would need another set of hands in return for the chance to study their everyday lives. Angus, unsure, returns inside to ask Morgan, but instead of doing so, he walks back into the kitchen and proceeds to make another sandwich. Morgan inquires about the knock at the door but Angus, confused by the question as he does not remember talking to anyone, doesn’t reply. Morgan leaves Angus who continues to make and then eat his sandwich, forgetting about Miles waiting for him outside.
In the next scene, Miles is seen struggling on a tractor while taking instructions from Morgan. Angus, also there, repeats everything
Morgan says. After a fight with the machine and wounding Morgan’s arm, the engine suddenly dies. Angus quickly runs inside the house but once there forgets why he had come. Morgan sits down on the porch examining his arm while Miles apologizes for running over his arm with the tractor. Angus reappears and notices Morgan’s arm, having forgotten that he saw the incident occur. Angus notices Miles who he does not remember ever meeting and Morgan requests
Angus fetch him a wet towel for his arm. Angus returns with a spoonful of water and shoves it in Morgan’s mouth who then requests yet again, for a wet towel. Angus comes back out onto the porch again with another spoonful of water and then goes back inside after
Morgan patiently asks once more for a wet towel. Angus returns with another spoonful of water but this time states that he is very tired and then retreats upstairs to rest.
Later, sitting at the table in the kitchen, Miles asks Morgan why Angus gets so many headaches and can’t remember things. Morgan tells
Miles that during the war in 1941, while the two were in London,
England, Angus was hit with a front door during an air raid. Morgan
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The Drawer Boy
goes on to clarify that he then had a plate put in his skull to keep the broken pieces from rubbing together and since then Angus can’t remember one moment to the next. Miles then learns that he will constantly have to remind Angus of who he is and why he is there.
Morgan goes on to tell Miles about how they went away to war together and returned together and have lived with one another ever since. Suddenly Angus enters disoriented and confused mumbling something about a car and a tall girl before Morgan sends him back upstairs to lie down.
The next day, after helping Morgan with the bales of hay Miles comes into the kitchen to find Angus. He explains to Angus who he is and why he is there and then he continues to ask Angus questions which he answers with bits and pieces of information that Miles is left to decipher. Morgan enters to find that Angus is being interviewed by
Miles. Flustered, Morgan yells at Miles to leave Angus alone and to stick to learning about farming.
Later that evening Miles overhears Morgan telling Angus a story about two guys. They grew up together, one wanted to be a farmer and the other a drawer. The drawer boy drew a picture of a cabin which they then built. When the young men graduated from school and went off to war in Europe where they met two girls whom they fell in love with. The girls were to return home with the two men, but one night while in Europe the drawer boy was hit in the head with a door after a bomb exploded nearby. He explained about how the boy’s memory escaped and the other three friends helped to put his memory back again. Morgan continued to tell Angus that the two couples did return home, got married and bought land to start building the house they had all dreamed of. He tells Angus of how they bought a black car which then triggers a memory for Angus.
Morgan continues explaining to Angus about how the two girls died in a car accident after being struck by a transport. Angus then remembers the two girls and realizes that he and Morgan are the young men in the story. Morgan finishes the story by stating that the men now live together and take care of each other. The drawer boy makes bread and counts numbers while the other boy farms. Miles, not wanting to forget any parts of the story overheard, writes notes in his notebook.
A couple days later Morgan and Angus return home after sitting in on one of Miles’ rehearsals. Miles had written his material for the play directly using content from his experience on the farm. Angus is thrilled after seeing the actors portray him and Morgan. Morgan, however, is furious. Miles had also used the story he had overheard
Morgan telling Angus. Morgan, enraged, tells Miles that he refuses to
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The Drawer Boy
allow him to use it in his play. Suddenly Angus enters and sees Miles who is about to introduce himself yet again when he is interrupted by
Angus, who says that he knows who he is and why he’s staying with them. Morgan is confused that Angus is able to remember Miles as he has never been able to remember anyone but him before. Angus congratulates Miles for his ability to portray and sound just like
Morgan in the play. Morgan, still angry, wants Miles to leave while
Angus invites Miles inside for a sandwich.
ACT II
Outside the next day, Miles is telling Angus about when he acted in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Angus asks Miles to tell him the story of the two boys and the two girls. Miles, sure that this would only make Morgan more upset with him, refuses. Angus asks Miles to tell the story pretending to be Morgan like he did in his play but again Miles says no. Angus then drops his voice lower and hunches over to resemble Morgan deciding that it would be okay if he told the story. Miles starts out the story for Angus and begins to act and talk like
Morgan, the two taking turns telling the story. As they tell the story
Angus’ starts to recall parts that were not told in the story. By the end
Angus walks inside remembering architectural drawings hidden in the floor boards. Morgan walks in to see that Angus has in his possession the drawings and snaps at Miles who attempts to explain to Morgan that Angus had found them on his own. Angus then explains to
Morgan that he saw him hiding them there one night and that he now wants to be taken to the hill where their girls were buried after the car accident. Morgan refuses while Angus continues fighting him insisting that he wants to go. Miles involves himself also arguing with Morgan to take Angus to visit the graves on the hill. Angus, remembering more and more on his own, is finally taken back upstairs to lie down.
In the middle of the night Angus comes downstairs and leaves the house disappearing into the night. Morgan and Miles enter a moment later noticing the open door. Morgan orders Miles to wait in the house before running out into the night after Angus.
Morgan returns in the morning with no sign of Angus and Miles suggests that he look at the graveyard on the hill. Morgan refuses, telling Miles to stay out of it. Miles apologizes explaining that he didn’t mean to hurt them and do any of this to Angus. Miles pleads to
Morgan wanting to help find Angus and Morgan eventually gives in throwing Miles the keys to the truck. Miles goes to leave when it
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suddenly occurs to him that the reason Morgan did not look for
Angus at the graveyard was because the story that he tells Angus is not the real story.
Angus appears with a bleeding arm overhearing Miles’ comment to
Morgan about the story not being true. He confronts Morgan who tries to change the subject but Angus won’t have it and eventually
Morgan starts to explain what really happened all those years before.
Morgan tells Angus that what he remembers is only the story he’s been telling him all these years and that in fact it was his fault that
Angus got hit with the door while in Europe. He sent Angus out to fetch a bottle of brandy that he won in a card game and while out
Angus was struck in the head by the door. He continues, telling Angus that the girls did not in fact die in a car accident as they had actually sold the black car. Angus, remembering vaguely, becomes angry with
Morgan and calls out for Miles to tell him the truth. Finally Morgan agrees to tell Angus the truth with the help of Miles as requested by
Angus.
Morgan begins by telling Angus that he was originally planning to attend University until Morgan talked him out of it and convinced him to volunteer with him in the war. They headed to Europe where they met two girls, Sally, who fell in love with Angus and Frances, who loved Morgan. All four became close friends. Both couples made plans to return home together, marry, and build their dream homes.
Morgan then explains that he sent Angus out to fetch a bottle of brandy during an air raid and that is when he was hit in the head by the door nearly dying and causing him to lose his memory.
The men returned home accompanied by the girls but there was no wedding as Sally wanted to wait until Angus had recovered from the accident. They did not immediately start building the house that they had all dreamed of but instead bought some land with a home on it to live together in. Morgan tells Angus that Sally loved him very much and never left his side but that he used to get awful headaches which would cause him to become mean. He continues explaining that one day Angus hit Sally. She could no longer be with him and therefore,
Sally and Frances left.
Morgan tries to help Angus understand that the reason for telling him the lie was because it seemed to make Angus feel better and he was able to accept the lie better than the reality. Angus, grateful to
Morgan for his friendship and all he has done for him, makes Morgan a sandwich.
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Characters
Morgan: A middle-aged farmer taking care of Angus.
Angus: A middle-aged farmer with brain damage from a war accident.
Miles: A young actor from the city.
The Real Miles
Based on Miles Potter
The character Miles in The Drawer Boy is actually based on actor/director Miles Potter, who has worked in theatre across Canada for over 30 years.
Potter began his career creating and working on productions such as
The Farm Show, 1837: The Farmers Revolt, and The Donnellys at
Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Free Theatre and Tarragon Theatre.
Potter also spent three seasons in the company at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival playing roles like Caliban in Shakespeare’s The
Tempest. He also acted in the world premiere of Elliott Hayes’
Homeward Bound.
He has directed over 40 productions at major theatres across the country including Blyth Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Centaur
Theatre, Theatre Calgary and The Grand Theatre. He has also directed works including Romeo and Juliet, Medea, Good Mother and The Glass Menagerie for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Potter has guest directed and taught at the National Theatre School in Montreal, George Brown College, Humber College, Dalhousie
University, The University of Ottawa and the University of Missouri in
Kansas City.
From 1984-86 Potter was Artistic Director at the Belfry Theatre.
In 1999, Potter directed Measure for Measure for Bard on the Beach
Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver as well as directing a work at Passe
Muraille which then led to the creative process of The Farm Show and then to The Drawer Boy.
Potter went on to direct the original production of The Drawer Boy which won a Dora Award. The production went on national tour and ran in Toronto at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Potter lives with his wife, actor Seana McKenna, in Harrington,
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Ontario. Together they have a son, Callan.
Miles Potter will be directing The Syringa Tree at The Grand Theatre this season.
Clinton, Ontario
Clinton, a small town established in 1831, is located in Canada in the province of Ontario. Clinton is in the municipality of Central Huron and in 2001 had a population of approximately 3,117. The town was named after Sir Henry Clinton, a British army officer who served during the American Revolutionary War.
Clinton is the home of the first radar school in North America. In 1935 the first radar or Radio Direction Finding station was established in
Britain which became the Radar Early Warning System during World
War II. In August of 1940 Britain had requested Canada to begin manufacturing radar equipment. The company, Research Enterprises
Limited, opened in Leaside, Ontario and soon was supplying most of the military requirements for Canada, Britain and the United States.
The first radar school opened in Clinton, Ontario in August of 1941.
The school’s purpose was to be able to teach radio direction finding in a secure environment. The school was staffed by members of the
Royal Air Force and the premis was secured by a surrounding electrically charged fence and armed guards. 2,345 Americans and over 6,500 Canadians had graduated from the school by the end of the war. Long after the war the community in Clinton eventually became aware of the purpose of the school as it had been kept top secret even from the community. A former radar dish is now located in the centre of Clinton to commemorate the school.
The town and surrounding area is also known for the Stephen Truscott case. Stephen Truscott, at the age of 14, was falsely convicted of the murder of 12 year old Lynne Harper in 1959. After trying to clear his name for 48 years he was finally acquitted in 2007.
Something Interesting…
In 2005, John Mahoney, most well known for his role as Frasier’s father, Martin, on the hit television show Frasier, performed the role of Morgan in a production of The Drawer Boy at the Paper Mill
Playhouse in New Jersey.
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Questions & Activities
1. Miles, an actor from the city, travels to Southern Ontario to research life in a rural community. How is the rural and urban culture portrayed in the play? Give some examples where the characters clash due to their cultural differences.
2. Miles and Morgan sometimes disagree on the way things should occur. In your opinion, do you think that the differences are due to the fact that they both come from different cultures or do you think age plays a factor? Explain.
3. After seeing the production why do you think the play is so successful? Do you think that both rural and urban communities can relate to the play?
4. Write a review for the production. Review the set, costumes, lighting, actors and the script.
5. There are a number of other characters mentioned in the play that never appear like Sally and Frances, Angus and Morgan’s neighbours and the other actors in Miles’ acting group. Why do you think these characters are never seen?
6. If you were in Morgan’s position would you have kept the truth from Angus or told him the real story? Why?
7. Form a small group and interview people in your community.
Like
Miles and his acting group, create a play revolving around these people and their stories.
8. Agriculture is a huge industry in Southern Ontario. Pick a certain type of farming and research it (dairy, beef, pigs, corn, chickens, soybeans, tobacco, etc.).
9. Although Sally loved Angus why do you think she left him? Why do you think Morgan decided to stay with Angus?
10. What type of play do you think The Drawer Boy is? Comedy?
Drama? How did you feel watching and hearing the story as it unfolded? Reference Materials
1. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “Healey, Michael.” [Online] 22
April 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Healey%
2C%20Michael>.
2. Wikipedia. “Micheal Healey.” [Online] 22 April 2008. < http://en.
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wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Healey>.
3. Playwrights Canada Press. “Michael Healey.” [Online] 22 April
2008. < http://www.playwrightscanada.com/playwrights/michael_ healey.html>. 4. St. Thomas University. “Drawer Boy Playgoers Guide.” [Online] 16
May 2008. <http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/22230001/ dbguide.htm>. 5. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “Potter, Miles.” [Online] 13
August 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Potter
%2C%20Miles>.
6. Blyth Festival. “Miles Potter.” [Online] 13 August 2008.
<http://www.blythfestival.com/company.php?ID=50>.
7. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “The Drawer Boy.” [Online] 14
August 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=The%
20Drawer%20Boy>.
8. Wikipedia. “Clinton, Ontario.” [Online] 13 August 2008. <http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton,_Ontario>. 9. Transcription of the Program. “The Farm Show.” [Online] 15 August
2008. <http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/academic/theatre/programs/ farmshow.html>. 10. Waymarking. “First Radar School in North America.” [Online] 19
August 2008. <http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2C4N>.
11. The Globe Theatre. “The Drawer Boy.” [Online] 21 August 2008.
<http://www.globetheatrelive.com/20002001season/studyguidethedr
awerboy.htm>.
Grand Theatre Study Guide 2008/09 Season
THE OFFICIAL GRAND THEATRE STUDY GUIDE
471 Richmond St.
London, ON N6A 3E4
Box Office: 519-672-8800
Online: www.grandtheatre.com
The Drawer Boy
About the Writer
Michael Healey is a Canadian playwright and actor. He was born
August 25, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario and was raised in Brockville,
Ontario.
In 1985, Healey graduated from the acting program at Ryerson
Theatre School in Toronto. His acting credits include The League of
Nathans, Reading Hebron, Three in the Black, Two in the Head, The
End of Civilization, The Optimists and Better Living. In 1995 Healey encountered the history of The Farm Show while acting at Blyth
Festival which in turn was inspiration for his own play, The Drawer
Boy.
Healey began writing plays in …show more content…
the early ‘90s. He produced and acted in his first play, Kicked, in 1996 at the Toronto Film Festival. Kicked continued to tour across Canada and Australia and won a Dora Mavor
Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 1998.
In 1999 he produced his first full-length play, The Drawer Boy, at Theatre Passe
Muraille in Toronto and remounted it by Ed Mirvish Productions at the
Winter Garden Theatre. The Drawer Boy received international acclaim and has been produced internationally and across North
America. It has been translated into German, French and Japanese.
The Drawer Boy has won the Governor General’s Award for Drama in
1999, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play, A Chalmers
Canadian Playwriting Award and the Governor General’s Literary
Award.
In 2002 Healey co-authored the Road to Hell with Kate Lynch and his play Plan B premiered at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, winning a Dora
Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play. In March of 2003 he also premiered one of his plays, Rune Arlidge, a three-act tragedy, at the
Tarragon Theatre. It was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 2004.
In 2005 Healey performed in his own play, The Innocent Eye Test, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
He has also appeared in the CBC TV series, This is Wonderland.
Healey continues to work as an actor and a playwright. He is a writer at the Tarragon Theatre and recently premiered his latest …show more content…
comedy,
Generous, in October of 2006.
About the Director
Gina Wilkinson’s directing credits include: Moonlight and Magnolias;
Relatively Speaking, Over the River and Through The Woods (The
Grand Theatre); The Woman in White (Theatre Aquarius), Goodnight
Grand Theatre Study Guide 2008/09 Season
The Drawer Boy
Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (BeMe Productions, Munich,
Germany); Turn of the Screw, Grace (Belfry Theatre); Eyes of Heaven
(Blyth Festival - premiere); Whistle Me Home, FishShack
(SummerWorks); Mick Unplugged, Mary’s Wedding (Alberta Theatre
Projects - premieres), Guide To Mourning (Globe Theatre), For the
Pleasure of Seeing Her Again (Festival Antigonish)
Gina has performed as an actor in almost every theatre in Canada, most recently at the Tarragon Theatre in Morris Panych's
Benevolence.
Recent film and television appearances: WiseGal (Lifetime); This is
Wonderland (C.B.C series; two seasons-recurring role)
As Playwright: My Mother’s Feet (premiered at The Canadian Stage
Co., 2005). At The Crossroads (adaptation of Sophocles’ Theban
Cycle, Concordia University, 2006), Whistle Me Home (Summerworks
Theatre Festival)
Gina will be directing her own play My Mother's Feet in Munich, and the premiere of The Good Egg by Michael Maclennan at Alberta
Theatre Projects.
About the Play
The Drawer Boy began in the summer of 1972 when a group of actors headed to Clinton in Southwestern Ontario to interview local farmers and their families and learn about their lifestyle in a rural community.
The group consisted of Janet Amos, Ann Anglin, David Fox, Al Jones,
Fina MacDonnell, Miles Potter and director Paul Thompson. After several years of hard work and research by the students and their teachers, The Farm Show was created. The actors attempted to dramatize what they had learned in a daily improvisational session using the content that had come directly from the farmers they had interviewed. Word about the show spread and popularity grew and finally the show was written down on paper. The first shows did not have costumes, lights, sets, and weren’t even presented in a theatre.
The sessions were held in a barn and used hay bales as seats. The first production of The Farm Show was staged by Theatre Erindale, the first play to be staged by the company.
Over 25 years later in February 1999, The Drawer Boy, written by
Michael Healey, was produced and premiered at Theatre Passe
Muraille in Toronto. While acting at the Blyth Festival, Michael Healey met with many local farmers who had inspired The Farm Show.
Michael could not believe the impact those actors had had on the
Grand Theatre Study Guide 2008/09 Season
The Drawer Boy
community and decided to write The Drawer Boy.
Basing the play on The Farm Show and the shows’ history, Michael tells a story of a young actor from the city who goes to a rural farmhouse to research two elderly bachelor farmers for a new play.
The play is about interpreting reality through storytelling and the effects it can have on lives.
Miles Potter, David Fox and Paul Thompson, original creators of The
Farm Show, were also involved with the original production of The
Drawer Boy. Miles Potter directed the production while David Fox played the character Angus. Paul Thompson was the Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille at the time and worked to produce the production. Original Company of
The Drawer Boy
Morgan: Jerry Franken
Angus: David Fox
Miles: Tom Barnett
Director: Miles Potter
Set Design: Stephan Droege
Lighting Design: Steve Lucas
Costume Design: Michelle Vanderheyden
Sound Design: Jonathan Rooke
Stage Manager: Erica Heyland
Production Manager: Mark Ryder
Technical Director: Jonathan Rooke
After its premiere, The Drawer Boy was produced by Ed Mirvish
Productions at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto and then in
2001 at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. Other productions have been produced at the National Arts Centre, Edmonton’s Citadel
Theatre and Vancouver Playhouse among others.
The play won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, a Chalmers Award and a Governor General's Award .
Play Synopsis
Revisit 1972 with an aspiring young actor from Toronto who plants himself in rural Ontario to research country life for a theatrical script he is developing. During his extended visit with two farmers, not overly thrilled with the self-involved city dweller, he unwittingly
Grand Theatre Study Guide 2008/09 Season
The Drawer Boy
stumbles upon and unravels decades of mystery.
Setting: The play takes place in a farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada.
ACT I
The play opens with Angus, a farmer in his fifties, making a sandwich.
Morgan, the other owner of the farmhouse and also in his fifties, enters and starts eating the sandwich Angus has prepared for him.
There is a knock at the door and Angus goes to answer it, finding a young man standing in front of him. The man introduces himself as
Miles and explains that he is with a group of actors from Toronto. He explains that they are here to study the lives of farmers in the community to assist in creating a play about farmers. Miles asks if they would need another set of hands in return for the chance to study their everyday lives. Angus, unsure, returns inside to ask Morgan, but instead of doing so, he walks back into the kitchen and proceeds to make another sandwich. Morgan inquires about the knock at the door but Angus, confused by the question as he does not remember talking to anyone, doesn’t reply. Morgan leaves Angus who continues to make and then eat his sandwich, forgetting about Miles waiting for him outside.
In the next scene, Miles is seen struggling on a tractor while taking instructions from Morgan. Angus, also there, repeats everything
Morgan says. After a fight with the machine and wounding Morgan’s arm, the engine suddenly dies. Angus quickly runs inside the house but once there forgets why he had come. Morgan sits down on the porch examining his arm while Miles apologizes for running over his arm with the tractor. Angus reappears and notices Morgan’s arm, having forgotten that he saw the incident occur. Angus notices Miles who he does not remember ever meeting and Morgan requests
Angus fetch him a wet towel for his arm. Angus returns with a spoonful of water and shoves it in Morgan’s mouth who then requests yet again, for a wet towel. Angus comes back out onto the porch again with another spoonful of water and then goes back inside after
Morgan patiently asks once more for a wet towel. Angus returns with another spoonful of water but this time states that he is very tired and then retreats upstairs to rest.
Later, sitting at the table in the kitchen, Miles asks Morgan why Angus gets so many headaches and can’t remember things. Morgan tells
Miles that during the war in 1941, while the two were in London,
England, Angus was hit with a front door during an air raid. Morgan
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goes on to clarify that he then had a plate put in his skull to keep the broken pieces from rubbing together and since then Angus can’t remember one moment to the next. Miles then learns that he will constantly have to remind Angus of who he is and why he is there.
Morgan goes on to tell Miles about how they went away to war together and returned together and have lived with one another ever since. Suddenly Angus enters disoriented and confused mumbling something about a car and a tall girl before Morgan sends him back upstairs to lie down.
The next day, after helping Morgan with the bales of hay Miles comes into the kitchen to find Angus. He explains to Angus who he is and why he is there and then he continues to ask Angus questions which he answers with bits and pieces of information that Miles is left to decipher. Morgan enters to find that Angus is being interviewed by
Miles. Flustered, Morgan yells at Miles to leave Angus alone and to stick to learning about farming.
Later that evening Miles overhears Morgan telling Angus a story about two guys. They grew up together, one wanted to be a farmer and the other a drawer. The drawer boy drew a picture of a cabin which they then built. When the young men graduated from school and went off to war in Europe where they met two girls whom they fell in love with. The girls were to return home with the two men, but one night while in Europe the drawer boy was hit in the head with a door after a bomb exploded nearby. He explained about how the boy’s memory escaped and the other three friends helped to put his memory back again. Morgan continued to tell Angus that the two couples did return home, got married and bought land to start building the house they had all dreamed of. He tells Angus of how they bought a black car which then triggers a memory for Angus.
Morgan continues explaining to Angus about how the two girls died in a car accident after being struck by a transport. Angus then remembers the two girls and realizes that he and Morgan are the young men in the story. Morgan finishes the story by stating that the men now live together and take care of each other. The drawer boy makes bread and counts numbers while the other boy farms. Miles, not wanting to forget any parts of the story overheard, writes notes in his notebook.
A couple days later Morgan and Angus return home after sitting in on one of Miles’ rehearsals. Miles had written his material for the play directly using content from his experience on the farm. Angus is thrilled after seeing the actors portray him and Morgan. Morgan, however, is furious. Miles had also used the story he had overheard
Morgan telling Angus. Morgan, enraged, tells Miles that he refuses to
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allow him to use it in his play. Suddenly Angus enters and sees Miles who is about to introduce himself yet again when he is interrupted by
Angus, who says that he knows who he is and why he’s staying with them. Morgan is confused that Angus is able to remember Miles as he has never been able to remember anyone but him before. Angus congratulates Miles for his ability to portray and sound just like
Morgan in the play. Morgan, still angry, wants Miles to leave while
Angus invites Miles inside for a sandwich.
ACT II
Outside the next day, Miles is telling Angus about when he acted in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Angus asks Miles to tell him the story of the two boys and the two girls. Miles, sure that this would only make Morgan more upset with him, refuses. Angus asks Miles to tell the story pretending to be Morgan like he did in his play but again Miles says no. Angus then drops his voice lower and hunches over to resemble Morgan deciding that it would be okay if he told the story. Miles starts out the story for Angus and begins to act and talk like
Morgan, the two taking turns telling the story. As they tell the story
Angus’ starts to recall parts that were not told in the story. By the end
Angus walks inside remembering architectural drawings hidden in the floor boards. Morgan walks in to see that Angus has in his possession the drawings and snaps at Miles who attempts to explain to Morgan that Angus had found them on his own. Angus then explains to
Morgan that he saw him hiding them there one night and that he now wants to be taken to the hill where their girls were buried after the car accident. Morgan refuses while Angus continues fighting him insisting that he wants to go. Miles involves himself also arguing with Morgan to take Angus to visit the graves on the hill. Angus, remembering more and more on his own, is finally taken back upstairs to lie down.
In the middle of the night Angus comes downstairs and leaves the house disappearing into the night. Morgan and Miles enter a moment later noticing the open door. Morgan orders Miles to wait in the house before running out into the night after Angus.
Morgan returns in the morning with no sign of Angus and Miles suggests that he look at the graveyard on the hill. Morgan refuses, telling Miles to stay out of it. Miles apologizes explaining that he didn’t mean to hurt them and do any of this to Angus. Miles pleads to
Morgan wanting to help find Angus and Morgan eventually gives in throwing Miles the keys to the truck. Miles goes to leave when it
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suddenly occurs to him that the reason Morgan did not look for
Angus at the graveyard was because the story that he tells Angus is not the real story.
Angus appears with a bleeding arm overhearing Miles’ comment to
Morgan about the story not being true. He confronts Morgan who tries to change the subject but Angus won’t have it and eventually
Morgan starts to explain what really happened all those years before.
Morgan tells Angus that what he remembers is only the story he’s been telling him all these years and that in fact it was his fault that
Angus got hit with the door while in Europe. He sent Angus out to fetch a bottle of brandy that he won in a card game and while out
Angus was struck in the head by the door. He continues, telling Angus that the girls did not in fact die in a car accident as they had actually sold the black car. Angus, remembering vaguely, becomes angry with
Morgan and calls out for Miles to tell him the truth. Finally Morgan agrees to tell Angus the truth with the help of Miles as requested by
Angus.
Morgan begins by telling Angus that he was originally planning to attend University until Morgan talked him out of it and convinced him to volunteer with him in the war. They headed to Europe where they met two girls, Sally, who fell in love with Angus and Frances, who loved Morgan. All four became close friends. Both couples made plans to return home together, marry, and build their dream homes.
Morgan then explains that he sent Angus out to fetch a bottle of brandy during an air raid and that is when he was hit in the head by the door nearly dying and causing him to lose his memory.
The men returned home accompanied by the girls but there was no wedding as Sally wanted to wait until Angus had recovered from the accident. They did not immediately start building the house that they had all dreamed of but instead bought some land with a home on it to live together in. Morgan tells Angus that Sally loved him very much and never left his side but that he used to get awful headaches which would cause him to become mean. He continues explaining that one day Angus hit Sally. She could no longer be with him and therefore,
Sally and Frances left.
Morgan tries to help Angus understand that the reason for telling him the lie was because it seemed to make Angus feel better and he was able to accept the lie better than the reality. Angus, grateful to
Morgan for his friendship and all he has done for him, makes Morgan a sandwich.
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Characters
Morgan: A middle-aged farmer taking care of Angus.
Angus: A middle-aged farmer with brain damage from a war accident.
Miles: A young actor from the city.
The Real Miles
Based on Miles Potter
The character Miles in The Drawer Boy is actually based on actor/director Miles Potter, who has worked in theatre across Canada for over 30 years.
Potter began his career creating and working on productions such as
The Farm Show, 1837: The Farmers Revolt, and The Donnellys at
Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Free Theatre and Tarragon Theatre.
Potter also spent three seasons in the company at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival playing roles like Caliban in Shakespeare’s The
Tempest. He also acted in the world premiere of Elliott Hayes’
Homeward Bound.
He has directed over 40 productions at major theatres across the country including Blyth Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Centaur
Theatre, Theatre Calgary and The Grand Theatre. He has also directed works including Romeo and Juliet, Medea, Good Mother and The Glass Menagerie for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Potter has guest directed and taught at the National Theatre School in Montreal, George Brown College, Humber College, Dalhousie
University, The University of Ottawa and the University of Missouri in
Kansas City.
From 1984-86 Potter was Artistic Director at the Belfry Theatre.
In 1999, Potter directed Measure for Measure for Bard on the Beach
Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver as well as directing a work at Passe
Muraille which then led to the creative process of The Farm Show and then to The Drawer Boy.
Potter went on to direct the original production of The Drawer Boy which won a Dora Award. The production went on national tour and ran in Toronto at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Potter lives with his wife, actor Seana McKenna, in Harrington,
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Ontario. Together they have a son, Callan.
Miles Potter will be directing The Syringa Tree at The Grand Theatre this season.
Clinton, Ontario
Clinton, a small town established in 1831, is located in Canada in the province of Ontario. Clinton is in the municipality of Central Huron and in 2001 had a population of approximately 3,117. The town was named after Sir Henry Clinton, a British army officer who served during the American Revolutionary War.
Clinton is the home of the first radar school in North America. In 1935 the first radar or Radio Direction Finding station was established in
Britain which became the Radar Early Warning System during World
War II. In August of 1940 Britain had requested Canada to begin manufacturing radar equipment. The company, Research Enterprises
Limited, opened in Leaside, Ontario and soon was supplying most of the military requirements for Canada, Britain and the United States.
The first radar school opened in Clinton, Ontario in August of 1941.
The school’s purpose was to be able to teach radio direction finding in a secure environment. The school was staffed by members of the
Royal Air Force and the premis was secured by a surrounding electrically charged fence and armed guards. 2,345 Americans and over 6,500 Canadians had graduated from the school by the end of the war. Long after the war the community in Clinton eventually became aware of the purpose of the school as it had been kept top secret even from the community. A former radar dish is now located in the centre of Clinton to commemorate the school.
The town and surrounding area is also known for the Stephen Truscott case. Stephen Truscott, at the age of 14, was falsely convicted of the murder of 12 year old Lynne Harper in 1959. After trying to clear his name for 48 years he was finally acquitted in 2007.
Something Interesting…
In 2005, John Mahoney, most well known for his role as Frasier’s father, Martin, on the hit television show Frasier, performed the role of Morgan in a production of The Drawer Boy at the Paper Mill
Playhouse in New Jersey.
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Questions & Activities
1. Miles, an actor from the city, travels to Southern Ontario to research life in a rural community. How is the rural and urban culture portrayed in the play? Give some examples where the characters clash due to their cultural differences.
2. Miles and Morgan sometimes disagree on the way things should occur. In your opinion, do you think that the differences are due to the fact that they both come from different cultures or do you think age plays a factor? Explain.
3. After seeing the production why do you think the play is so successful? Do you think that both rural and urban communities can relate to the play?
4. Write a review for the production. Review the set, costumes, lighting, actors and the script.
5. There are a number of other characters mentioned in the play that never appear like Sally and Frances, Angus and Morgan’s neighbours and the other actors in Miles’ acting group. Why do you think these characters are never seen?
6. If you were in Morgan’s position would you have kept the truth from Angus or told him the real story? Why?
7. Form a small group and interview people in your community.
Like
Miles and his acting group, create a play revolving around these people and their stories.
8. Agriculture is a huge industry in Southern Ontario. Pick a certain type of farming and research it (dairy, beef, pigs, corn, chickens, soybeans, tobacco, etc.).
9. Although Sally loved Angus why do you think she left him? Why do you think Morgan decided to stay with Angus?
10. What type of play do you think The Drawer Boy is? Comedy?
Drama? How did you feel watching and hearing the story as it unfolded? Reference Materials
1. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “Healey, Michael.” [Online] 22
April 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Healey%
2C%20Michael>.
2. Wikipedia. “Micheal Healey.” [Online] 22 April 2008. < http://en.
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wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Healey>.
3. Playwrights Canada Press. “Michael Healey.” [Online] 22 April
2008. < http://www.playwrightscanada.com/playwrights/michael_ healey.html>. 4. St. Thomas University. “Drawer Boy Playgoers Guide.” [Online] 16
May 2008. <http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/22230001/ dbguide.htm>. 5. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “Potter, Miles.” [Online] 13
August 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Potter
%2C%20Miles>.
6. Blyth Festival. “Miles Potter.” [Online] 13 August 2008.
<http://www.blythfestival.com/company.php?ID=50>.
7. Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. “The Drawer Boy.” [Online] 14
August 2008. <http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=The%
20Drawer%20Boy>.
8. Wikipedia. “Clinton, Ontario.” [Online] 13 August 2008. <http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton,_Ontario>. 9. Transcription of the Program. “The Farm Show.” [Online] 15 August
2008. <http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/academic/theatre/programs/ farmshow.html>. 10. Waymarking. “First Radar School in North America.” [Online] 19
August 2008. <http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2C4N>.
11. The Globe Theatre. “The Drawer Boy.” [Online] 21 August 2008.
<http://www.globetheatrelive.com/20002001season/studyguidethedr
awerboy.htm>.
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