There are only three characters in The Drawer Boy, a two-act play by Michael Healey. It is set in Clinton, Ontario, in 1972; the village is a small community that was founded in 1831 close to Lake Huron. The play's plot centers around the owners of a farm where the majority of the action takes place. Morgan and Angus are the owners and workers on the farm; they are joined by a young actor who is staying with them whilst he researches a role he is playing in a theater production about farming.
The play mirrors a real-life theatrical event in which Healey was involved and has its roots in alternative Canadian theater; in 1970, a group of actors, including David Potter, who played the role of Angus in the original theater production, created a presentation called The Farm Show. Twenty years later, Michael Healey, who had also been a part of the event, was working at the Blyth Festival and happened to meet many of the farmers he had come into contact with whilst researching his role on The Farm Show. Learning that the men were still farming, and that they still remembered him and the other researching actors, inspired him to pen a tribute to the longevity of art. This tribute became The Drawer Boy.
The Drawer Boy premiered at the Theater Passe Muraillie, in Toronto, in 1999, and was published in book form the same year. Reviews were largely positive, and critics praised the way in which, through Healey's work, mainstream and underground theater had become one, having been two entirely separate entities when The Farm Show was produced. The play was also considered to be one of the few truly Canadian productions to translate successfully to audiences around the world. The London production was particularly well-received, earning five star reviews and quickly being hailed as a Canadian theatrical classic.
In 2017, the play was adapted for the big screen and was nominated for several awards, winning Best Feature accolades at the Canadian Film Festival, the Heartland Film Festival and the Anchorage International Film Festival.
Following the success of his first play, Healey went on to write more Canada-centric plays, including a trilogy entitled Generous, Courageous and Proud, which focused on what Healey saw as traditional Canadian values and the meaning of life in his homeland. Healey is the recipient of five Doris Awards, including one for The Drawer Boy.
