The Drawer Boy

It’s 1972 and the theatre scene in Canada has reached peak hippy. An experimental theatre group sends its young actors out to work with and observe local farmers in order to create a play based on their experiences. And so it is that naïve bohemian Miles hilariously crashes into the stable world of farmers Morgan and Angus. Morgan manages the farm but also acts as carer to Angus, who has brain damage which cost him his short-term memory. In spite of his disability, Angus is able to provide useful work around the farm. Miles’s initial attempts to find interesting material fail, until he overhears Morgan telling a delighted Angus a story from their youth which includes the catastrophic moment when Angus was injured. This gives Miles something he can work with.

The Drawer Boy was written in 1999, very loosely based on and in homage to the process that lead to the creation of The Farm Show—both of which are now considered important pieces of Canadian Theatre. The drawer boy of the title is Angus, who before his shrapnel wound was a draftsman and artist. Chris Baldock’s rendition of Angus is mesmerizing, conveying the surprising nuances and capabilities offsetting his profound memory deficits. Baldock captures Angus’s emotional swings from unbridled joy to bitter frustration with precision, making a character immediately recognizable and very empathic. Angus’s friend Morgan on the other hand is terse, sarcastic and private. Richard Manning’s Morgan is the quiet, stoic type who would prefer to bury the past. He has worked out how to manage Angus’s life in a way that causes the least stress to either of them, and thus he is alarmed and slightly hostile to Miles’s attempts to elicit stories that might disrupt the stability of his and Angus’s life together. As such he devises ridiculous ways to keep Miles out of the house and busy. Manning’s performance makes it clear that although Angus’s damage is visible to anyone who talks to him, Morgan also carries damage from the same events.

Callum Doherty’s Miles seems like he’s come from another planet. Airily cerebral and inquisitive, he’s always respectful and polite in that very Canadian way. When he first turns up in a pair of criminally short jean cutoffs, his bumbling naivety and rambling chatter become the basis for some very funny comedic moments. Doherty’s comic timing makes Miles hilarious.

As the play progresses, it becomes meatier both on the surface and in metaphor. Stirred by the changes in routine driven by Miles’s intervention, Angus begins to change. This character development is wonderfully handled by Baldock, who conveys incredible emotional depth and utterly convincing movement and gesture.

The set features projected pencil drawings which are a little confusing at first but make perfect sense as the play progresses. The lighting is beautifully naturalistic and unobtrusive and the soundtrack includes lazy bluegrass and folk, especially during the scene changes. If I have a complaint, it would only be that the scene changes seemed to be slow. I’m not sure what the reason for that would be given there was not much set change but given that the show is 140 minutes long it seemed a bit unnecessary.

Mockingbird’s The Drawer Boy is hilarious and human, moving and delicate, touching on themes of privacy and intrusion, the ownership of memory, repression, redemption, lies, truth and the power of narrative. The pitch perfect performances, gentle comedy and empathy make it a fabulous show for all ages.

Cathy Bannister

Photographer: Zac Bridgman