The Drawer Boy
Tron Theatre Company
First and foremost, The Drawer Boy is a very entertaining night at the theatre. The Tron's new director Andy Arnold has chosen a first-rate play with which to make his debut – part comedy, part mystery, part tragedy – and brought together a cracking cast to perform it.
Inspired by the story of a group of Canadian actors who researched life on the farm for what would become a hugely successful touring production, The Drawer Boy tells of Miles (Brian Ferguson), a young actor armed with a notebook who turns up on the doorstep of farmers Morgan and Angus offering labour in exchange for board and inspiration.
"A very entertaining
night at the theatre
... a first-rate
play and a
cracking cast"
The inscrutable Morgan (Benny Young) isn't about to turn down the offer of an extra pair of hands, however unaccustomed they might be to manual labour. Miles may be a wide-eyed city boy, but he has something in common with his hosts, and 'produce or die' becomes their shared mantra. That is until the younger man crosses the line in pursuit of his art, and inadvertently unearths a deep-planted secret.
Angus is Lenny to Morgan's George – the pair have been a team since before the Second World War, which left Angus with metal plates in his head and severe memory problems. Instead of dreaming of an impossible future like Steinbeck's characters, Morgan obliges Angus with a story of their past, in which the two of them are 'the farmer boy' and 'the drawer boy' respectively.
Michael Healey's many-layered play won huge acclaim when it first opened in his native Canada, and it's easy to see why. Perky Miles initially comes across as the perfect naïve foil for the weary, deadpan Morgan, and the gulf of contrast between the earnest, unselfconscious theatre kid and the practical, unmistakably masculine farmer earns plenty of early laughs. However, neither Miles nor his theatre-making are as daft and lightweight as they first appear, and the play twists seamlessly into a powerful meditation on storytelling, role play and observation.
It's easy to imagine any of the three roles being over-played, but under Arnold's restrained direction the cast, completed by Brian Pettifer as Angus, give a trio of perfectly complementary performances. The Canadian accent, with its peculiar and unexpected vowel sounds, poses a tough challenge to any non-native. That there's no programme credit for a vocal coach on this production makes the convincing vocal work – in particular, Ferguson's wonderfully delivered punchlines – all the more impressive.
Shona Craven
Until May 24 2008 at Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 552 4267.
www.tron.co.uk
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What the papers said:
The Guardian:
**** "Beautifully observed and subtly constructed in its journey from comedy to pathos"
The Herald:
**** "Arnold has made a cracking start to his tenure with this tender tale of magic, loss and a life regained"
The Scotsman:
**** "An exquisite study of how the human mind copes with the pain of loss through an act of creation"
Metro:
***** "Pitch-perfect performances from the cast... the play has more humour than most so-called comedies"
Sunday Herald:
**** "An intelligent choice for Arnold's first Tron production... this strong presentation bodes well for his directorship"
Blog verdicts:
www.viewfromthestalls.co.uk:
"I really enjoyed it, but I'm pretty fuzzy about why I enjoyed it so much
... for the record - this was a wonderful piece of theatre"
