The Drawer Boy

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – The Drawer Boy

Playwright/s – Michael Healey

Production Company/Theatre space – (Community) The Theatre., at the base of Fontainbleau Estates on 14^th Ave and 2^nd Street SW.

Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 15 minutes one intermission)

Genre/s – Comi-drama

Premise – A drama student lives with two older farmers to gather material for his devised theatre creation and both generations learn important lessons about friendship and the power of theatre.

Why this play? Why now? –In a sea of American plays, award winning playwright Michael Healey has given us a Canadian classic.

Curiosities – I wondered if the actors had done an Italian after their days off. The blackouts didn’t help the energy slump, could this have been avoided by a musical underscore?

Notable Moment – The horror of the cows.

Notable writing –This is a successful script. The play won the Governor General’s Award for Drama in 1999, as well as a Dora and Chalmers award. The Drawer Boy has had many productions and was adapted into a successful film. This is one of Healey’s earlier works and, while it still has oodles of charm and a few solid laughs, it feels long (or maybe that was the pacing of the show).

Notable performances – The show starts with a dour Angus (played by Richard Beaune) who enters before the show begins to ponder and eat a sandwich. We soon find out Angus has had a brain injury which results in both short and long-term memory loss. Filling in the gaps and keeping him on track is his old friend and former solider Morgan (played by Mark Edwards). Edwards portrays the familiar stoic friend who is recognizable, rural, and rough around the edges. Beaune and Edwards don’t really connect but that is mostly the nature of their on-stage relationship. Naïve drama student Miles is played by Noah Sharon. Sharon is a self-identifying emerging artist but held his own, embracing the role wholeheartedly, and getting laughs.

Notable design/Production – The set design was spare and nearly perfect. I don’t usually mention marketing posters in reviews (so many aren’t good), but the aesthetic of the theatre is strong, cohesive, and professional looking.

Notable direction – Abagail Vanmerlin and Jakob Schaefer are the superheroes who make it all happen. They are co-directors (although they aren’t mentioned in the program!), co-founders, co-owners. Vanmerlin is also producer, marketer, and concession worker.  Schaefer is the Set Designer, Stage Manager, and technician. (And they must be doing props, costumes, lighting, and sound design as well!) This is an unbelievable workload, and they deserve a standing O for all that. As co-directors, the show was adroit despite some slowness in energy at the end of the play.

One reason to see this show – This show is much stronger than the inaugural premiere production and very much worth seeing, (plus free popcorn!)