Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy
Canadian Playwright of This is Wonderland and The Innocent Eye Test
Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy, about an ambitious city actor who uncovers a long-buried family secret when he ventures into farm country to research the lives of two aging bachelors, is one of the most successful plays in Canadian theatre history. Since its premiere in 1999 at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille, The Drawer Boy has won countless awards, including Canada's Governor General's Literary Award and The Helen Hayes Award.
It continues to delight enthralled houses across Canada, The United States, and around the world. In 2001, The Drawer Boy made Time Magazine's top ten list as "a new classic", and in 2004 it became the most produced play in American regional theatres. John Mahoney of TV's Frasier has appeared in the show in Chicago and Ireland. It was recently remounted at Theatre Passe Muraille, home of early success in Toronto.
Writing for the Actor
Canadian playwright/actor Healey (This is Wonderland, The Innocent Eye Test) writes with actors in mind. He first wrote The Drawer Boy for his friend Jerry Franken, who was then working with Ontario's Blyth Festival, a rural summer theatre.
He was inspired by The Farm Show, the brainstorm of Canadian directing pioneer Paul Thompson, who co-founded Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille ("Theatre Without Walls"). Thompson believed his actors should really experience daily farm life, and so his eager Toronto troupe 'knocked on the farmhouse door' in rural Ontario.
From that '70s collection of stories and myth came a Canadian theatre landmark, which inspired Healey to create characters Angus and Morgan and Miles. Franken found his challenge in Healey's conflicted Morgan, a man steeped in routine and ritual, guarding a life-long secret. Veteran David Fox, a Farm Show alumnus, created one of recent theatre's most beloved characters as simple "drawer boy" Angus.
Healey's Comments
Actor/ director Miles Potter of the Farm Show collective was Healey's inspiration for Miles. "That first production at Theatre Passe Muraille was a huge surprise to me, to see how it was received," recalls Healey.
"It was a great thrill and joy to work with those three guys [Franken, Fox] and with Miles Potter. To have Miles on board all the way through the [Blyth] workshops for the couple of years prior - get his insight and get David Fox's insight... I talked to nearly everyone that was involved in The Farm Show originally, as well as some of the farmers that they had interviewed originally – a great experience," says Healey.
"Much to my amazement, it's doing great in the States," he says. "I call it The Franchise."
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