“The Drawer Boy,” an emotional drama about a pair of Canadian farmers and the complicated ties that bind them, opens Friday at Anacortes Community Theatre.
“I think it’s a very affecting, very emotional play,” said director Walter Vonnegut.
The play is about Angus (Rick Sohn), a brain-damaged World War II veteran and Morgan (David Picht), the childhood friend who cares for him. Thirty years after the war, the two run a farm together, sharing a carefully balanced routine.
Angus’ injury prevents him from remembering things on a moment by moment basis, but he’s artistic and sharp with numbers. Although he can perform repetitive tasks, he can’t remember to bring a bandage when Morgan is bleeding or to tell him when a visitor is waiting at the door. Frustrated by his faulty memory, he gets disturbed or develops a headache. Morgan has to repeatedly tell Angus about two English girls they were going to marry, who were killed in a car accident.
This routine is upset by the arrival of Miles (Zach Hasselberg), a young actor and playwright from a traveling company, who arrives one summer and asks to stay at the farm. Miles wants to learn about farming so he can write a play about it.
“There really was such a thing in Canada. They did the play in the barns. This is based on something that really happened,” Vonnegut said.
Miles soon finds Angus and his relationship with Morgan more interesting than farming.
As Miles begins to pepper Angus with questions about his memory, his war injury and the car accident, history starts to unravel.
“Bit by bit Angus becomes very disturbed and begins to remember bits of his life,” Vonnegut said.
In a rehearsal last week, Picht effectively revealed Morgan’s deep pain and frustration as he struggled to maintain a calm routine with his friend. Sohn ambles through scenes with good-natured vacancy, until his character lights up with boyish joy as he recounts Miles’ play, or as he grapples with pain and frustration as he tries to make sense of his jumbled past. Hasselberg was out ill last week and a stand-in capably read the part of Miles.
The play is aided by a particularly effective set by Bud Anderson. Realistic elements, such as the farm kitchen complete with Frigidaire, are loosely tied together with more minimalist elements, open framing and partial walls.
Vonnegut said he has wanted to stage Michael Healey’s “The Drawer Boy” for many years.
“I heard about it when a friend saw this play in British Columbia in Vancouver,” Vonnegut said. “He said ‘You’ve just got to do this play sometime.’”
The director said he was particularly struck by the ending, which had the same impact on him even after several readings.
“I would choke up at the end,” he said.
Although he liked it very much, the rights to perform it in the United States were not available until recent years. It was Picht who discovered the play’s availability.
Vonnegut said “The Drawer Boy” will allow him to close his career on a high note.
“This is my swan song. Definitely,” he said, pausing a moment. “Unless one comes along that is so perfect...”
