Review: The Drawer Boy at Clwyd Theatr Cymru

Nov 23 2008 Chester Chronicle

THE DRAWER BOY/Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, until November 29

REVIEW/by Peggy Woodcock

THE Drawer Boy at Clwyd Theatr Cymru is about what might have been and what is, what we remember and what really happened, what is real and what is make believe.

And if that sounds a bit deep, then meet good old Morgan and Angus. For they are two stolid down-to-earth farmers, and it is through their story, their history, that this play, explores such themes.

So it’s human and accessible, as I discovered as last Thursday’s performance developed from rather slow beginnings to an engrossing second half. For all sorts of revelations emerged as this apparently innocent relationship was put under threat.

Martyn Bainbridge’s excellent set - including on-stage chooks! - and Nick Beadles’s atmospheric lighting gave us the setting, a Canadian farm in 1972. Here a capable Morgan did the work and watched out for Angus, who couldn’t quite remember things since the accident.

Enter Miles, young drama student wanting to work on the farm to get first hand experience to write and stage a play about farming. In classic theatrical tradition, he shakes this humdrum situation to its roots.

And suddenly, Angus starts to remember and somehow it doesn’t match the story Morgan has told him, over and over. So what really happened when the boyhood friends went to war? How was Angus hurt?

Michael Healey’s play, based partly on fact, follows events as Angus finds the plans he once drew for two houses, joined, yet separate. Was there really a tall girl and a taller girl?

Interestingly, he used theatre to open a chink in Angus’s mind, first after seeing a play rehearsal, after seeing himself portrayed on stage, then listening to Miles recount the story of Hamlet.

This world of make believe was the key to Angus finding some reality, but his suddenly changing personality produced conflicting emotions in Morgan. It made for a slow-burning drama that kept you guessing right to the end.

It was superbly performed. Ifan Huw Dafydd was a bossy, protective Morgan who loved Angus, farming and having a joke with Miles, then showed the pathos of loss. Robert Blythe had excellent timing and vulnerability as Angus and Guy Lewis was an earnest, yet confrontational Miles.