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'Drawer Boy' a fine portrait of friendship

By MARTY CLEAR
Published September 14, 2005

In 1972, a group of actors ventured into the Canadian countryside. Their goal was to get to know the farm families, and they ended up creating a stage show about the people and their work, which proved a big hit.

The Drawer Boy is not that show. Instead it's a fictional 1999 play, inspired by the project, that won Canada's top drama prize for playwright Michael Healey.

Local audiences are getting their first chance to experience The Drawer Boy, thanks to a wonderfully realized production at American Stage. Healey's play turns out to be hilarious and beautiful, a touching character study about two memorable men and a treatise about the joys and obligations of deep friendship.

At the play's enormous heart are lifelong friends Morgan (Steven Clark Pachosa) and Angus (Joe Parra). They grew up together and went to war together. Angus returned with a brain injury that left him with almost no short-term memory. They've been taking care of each other and their farm ever since.

Into their lives comes Miles, a self-important but highly insecure actor who wants to work on the farm as research for his theater company.

One night Miles hears Angus beg Morgan for his favorite story. It's about two friends who grow up and go to war together in Europe, where one sustains a head injury. They meet two English girls, whom they bring back to Canada and marry, but the girls are later killed in a car crash.

Miles uses the story in his company's show, and seeing it portrayed onstage sparks a recovery in Angus, who becomes more lucid, aware and emotional.

The drawer in the title refers to a person who draws, not the thing you keep your socks in. Angus has been an artist and had drawn plans for a beautiful home the two friends and their English wives would live in.

American Stage regular Parra is sensational as Angus, a dynamic role that requires drastic changes in demeanor and mood. Parra seems to physically transform - his gait, his expression and voice all alter - but he nonetheless has a secure grip on the heart and soul of the wonderfully amiable Angus.

Pachosa's just as impressive in a less flashy role. Morgan is worn and exhausted but has a spritely sense of humor (most often directed at Miles, who's too dense to know he's the butt of jokes). There's a warmth and an intelligence in Pachosa's performance that goes beyond Healey's strongly crafted dialogue.

A lovely set by Sandra Goldmark, augmented by subtly evocative lighting by Christopher Fleming, give the space the open feel of a rural plain, and director Brendan Hughes shows a deft touch with the comic moments, which are plentiful and formidable, and the poignant scenes, which are gentle without becoming maudlin.

If there's a weakness, it's in the performance of Jonathan Fielding as Miles. His character doesn't have the depth or the dynamics of the other two, but even so Fielding doesn't seem to have a handle on Miles and sometimes seems too self-conscious.

[Last modified September 14, 2005, 02:15:34]