Theatre R.F.D.by Thomas Canfield

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In The Drawer Boy, playwrightMichael Healey weaves a poignantdrama about the terrible price ofwar, the palliative art of story-telling and the therapeutic power oftheatre. Set against the rural canvasof an isolated Ontario farm in1972, the play also chronicles alandmark experiment in Canadiantheatre history and its dynamicimpact on performers and audiences.

When Miles, a young actorfrom Toronto, interrupts the lonelylives of Morgan and Angus, two

bachelor farmers in their mid-fifties, he unleashes a chain ofevents that eventually culminatesin life-altering transformations forall three men. Although their storyis not based on actual events fromthe archives of history, Healeydrew inspiration for The DrawerBoy from a watershed theatricalexperiment that culminated in TheFarm Show, a 1972 documentaryplay.

This legendary event in Cana-dian theatre history, considered tobe an artistic milestone, was the

The original cast of the 1972 production of The Farm Show: (L-R) Paul Thompson,David Fox, Anne Anglin, Fina MacDonnell, Miles Potter, Al Jones and Janet Amos.

Photo credit: The Farm Show, The Coach House Press, 1976.

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unexpected, and the productionproved highly successful.

After Ted Johns, a writer withthe Théâtre Passe Muraille, tran-scribed the script, The Farm Showtook to the road and touredCanada. It first played in the city ofToronto, then at cattle markets,auction barns and community hallsin southwestern Ontario, and sub-sequently in the provinces ofSaskatchewan and Manitoba. Therevolutionary project also inspireda CBS television documentary pro-duced by prize-winning Canadiannovelist and poet MichaelOndaatje. The Clinton Special: AFilm About the Farm Show (1974)documents the project’s impact onlocal audiences, who were spell-bound. When interviewed, manyrecalled the production as a highpoint in their theatrical experience.

In the summer of 1995, Healeyworked as an actor with the BlythFestival, located just north of Clin-ton. Founded in 1975, the festivalproduces theatre that reflects theculture and concerns of the peopleof southwestern Ontario. There,Healey encountered many of theoriginal farmers and communitymembers whose stories hadinspired The Farm Show. Intriguedby the long-standing impact of theoriginal production, the Toronto-based playwright developed the

premise for The Drawer Boy,which was his first full-length play.In 1999, Healey’s play premieredat the Théâtre Passe Muraille, thesame theatre where, 27 years ear-lier, The Farm Show had itsToronto debut. Miles Potter, anoriginal cast member and co-cre-ator of The Farm Show (whomHealey used as inspiration for thefictional character of Miles),directed the production. Angus wasplayed by David Fox, another castmember and co-creator of the orig-inal production.

brainchild of pioneering directorPaul Thompson. Thompson co-founded the Théâtre Passe Muraille(“Theatre Without Walls”) inToronto with Jim Garrard in 1968.An example of “collective cre-ation,” The Farm Show was aninnovative, grassroots project thatbegan as an informal outgrowth ofRochdale College, a counter-cul-tural community in Toronto.

Often aligned with the people’stheatre movement, collective cre-ation is a form of documentary orethnographic theatre. Artists entera community, research a theme andinvent works that speak to andabout the specific group on whichthey are based. Through improvisa-tion, both the content and the struc-ture of a play are developed. Col-lective creation attempts to engageaudience members by sparking adialogue on current events. Often,the results are socially conscious orpolitically oriented. During histenure as artistic director of thePasse Muraille from 1971-82,Thompson supervised more than30 collective creation projects.

To formulate the unique the-atrical experience of The FarmShow, actors visited, lived andlabored alongside farm families inthe community of Clinton, locatedin the rural heartland of southernOntario. The stories they garnered

evolved into an alternative theatri-cal production that was dedicatedto the farmers they encountered.Much of the script came directlyfrom actual conversation. The finalresult, first presented to locals inRay Bird’s cattle-auction barn inClinton, had no lights, costumes orset, and hay bales provided seating.Actors played roles as farmers, ani-mals, and even agriculturalmachinery. The delight that audi-ences had in hearing and observingtheir own language and culture was

Tom Barnett (left) as Miles and David Fox asAngus in the original Théâtre Passe Murailleproduction of The Drawer Boy, which pre-miered on February 25, 1999. The productionwas directed by Miles Potter who was instru-mental in creating The Farm Show and wasalso Healey’s inspiration for the character ofMiles in The Drawer Boy. Coincidentally, Potter directed the UMKC Department of Theatre’s 2002 production of Le Cid.

Actors as tractors: cast members created manyof the props needed in The Farm Show,including the tractor they represent above.

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As the characters in TheDrawer Boy embark upon a jour-ney of awakening and self-realiza-tion, each unearths a unique, per-sonal reality that is eitherforgotten, concealed or undiscov-ered. The two older men, compan-ions from childhood, have livedand worked together for approxi-mately 30 years since returningfrom military duty in World War II.Angus, who suffered a brain injuryduring bombing in the LondonBlitz, is a mathematical savantwith a diminished short-termmemory and childlike approach tothe world. Plagued with fierce,intermittent headaches, Angusoccupies himself with makingsandwiches, baking bread and dis-pensing an imaginary tonic that hespoons from the kitchen faucet.Meanwhile, Morgan buries himselfin the daily drudgery of farm work.Every evening, Angus requests thatMorgan recite the story of theirpast with the two English womento whom they were once engaged,an exercise that forms their nightlyritual. The intimate and complexdependency of these two charac-ters has often been compared to therelationship between George andLennie in John Steinbeck’s OfMice and Men.

Miles offers to help out withthe chores in exchange for a hands-on opportunity to conduct researchfor an improvisational theatrepiece about farming. The no-non-sense Morgan, amenable to theidea of free labor, puts Miles towork as a farmhand. However, thecity boy knows nothing about typi-cal workaday farming tasks, suchas driving a tractor, milking cows,putting up hay or gathering eggs.In more ways than one, this is acoming-of-age experience for him.Morgan puts the gullible youngactor through his paces by tellingMiles tall tales and making wrysport of his inexperience. Asmishaps ensue, Morgan’s patienceruns thin and he assigns Miles themost absurd and tedious duties,preferring to keep the actor occu-pied and out of trouble. While the-atrical inspiration is the primarypurpose of Miles’s bucolic quest,he ultimately proves to be a quickstudy and becomes more agricul-turally adroit than his hosts imagine.

During the course of hisapprenticeship, Miles stumblesupon the personal history of thetwo men when he overhears Mor-gan recounting the tale of Angus’stragic injury and the aftermath.Soon, art imitates life when Miles

holds up a mirror to the two andappropriates the story of Morgan,“the farmer boy,” and Angus, theonce-artistic “drawer boy,” for avignette in his theatre project.After Morgan and Angus attend arehearsal and see their tale enactedonstage, the experience becomes acatalyst that opens a window intoAngus’s long-buried, cloudedmemories. Unpeeling forgottenand concealed truths layer by layer,Angus gradually begins to piecetogether his fragmented memoriesin search of the past. In theprocess, he threatens to expose thecleverly-crafted, fictional historythat has acted as a coping mecha-nism for the two farmers–a con-venient crutch that props up theirpain of their lives and allows themto skirt the truth. The resurrectionof Angus’s wounded memories

threatens to shatter the comfort-able, predictable security of his andMorgan’s existence and forcesthem to reexamine their past.

Farming may seem like anunusual subject for dramatic con-templation but, like The FarmShow that inspired it, The DrawerBoy bridges the gap between therural and the urban while crossingthe line between truth and inven-tion. In its thematic exploration ofthe differences between myth andreality, Healey’s play proves to beboth a fictional detective story anda slice of theatrical history.Although the clash between ruralshrewdness and urban naiveté ini-tially makes this play a pastoralcomedy, the story ultimatelyevolves into a compelling drama ofloyal friendship, lost love and abid-ing devotion.

Thomas Canfield, who holds a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Elizabethandrama, is pursuing a second M.A. in theatre history and dramatic literature at UMKC,where he was the dramaturg for this season’s production of The Country Wife, WilliamWycherley’s Restoration comedy. Last season, he was the dramaturg for the KansasCity Rep production of King Lear, and for Romeo and Juliet at the Heart of AmericaShakespeare Festival, where he will return for this summer’s production of Othello. Inaddition to composing the program essays for Gee’s Bend and The Drawer Boy at theRep this season, Dr. Canfield also is an English instructor at Grantham University.