“Yes. Uh, I’m here with a group of actors. We’re making up a play about farmers.”
These are practically the first word out of the mouth of Miles, a twenty-something young man who, as suggested here, has come looking for other people’s experiences to exploit for his own purposes. He is more than just an actor; the troupe is an experimental collective in which part of the process of sharing the task of writing the play as well as acting it. Within the first minute or two of the play, the basic fundamental dramatic situation is set out. From this point on, it is simply a matter of conflict rising.
Angus comes out with the spoonful of water.
MORGAN: "Thanks. A towel?"
Angus returns with another spoonful of water.
MORGAN: "Thanks, A towel?"
Angus goes back inside and gets another spoonful of water.
MORGAN: "Thanks. A towel?"
Angus returns with the water, and shoves the spoon in Morgan’s mouth.
The series of admittedly not described in their entirety here through the script’s stage directions and dialogue all occur within of three pages. It is a scene that takes place quite early in the story and throughout Miles and Morgan are carrying on a conversation. This comedic interlude is really the play’s introduction to Angus and it quickly becomes apparent that things are not quite right here. Miles will leap to the obvious conclusion and in short order offend Morgan with the suggestion that Angus is “simple.” The truth is far more complex and though the situation is tragic, it does allow for much of the play’s wealth of very funny “business.”
“He gets headaches. Says he sees lights flashing, sometimes he smells bread. Lasts for a day, then he’s fine.”
Morgan’s response to being offended by the suggestion of the stranger to his friend’s intellectual development is to explain that it is the result of having suffered severe brain trauma many years before. Of course, it is key to the narrative that Morgan doesn’t really explain everything truthfully. Interestingly, however, is that the manifestations of post-traumatic symptoms that he describes are not just factual, but also have encoded within them the truth of what is really going on with Angus. When finally revealed, the strangeness of the recurring sense of smelling bread baking coinciding with the more mundane headache makes is completely explicable.
MILES: “…a Canadian wrote it, but it’s not made up. It’s a true story. It really happened.”
ANGUS: “Whadda ya mean! It was on stage, wasn’t it? It was a play.”
Miles is teaching Angus about theater, having described the plot of Hamlet in the first person using common vernacular as if it were something that that had actually happened. He then tells him about a play based on the true story of the infamous Donnelly family. The reaction to Angus is a key thematic element of the drama itself: how does one separate the truth of a real story that inspires a dramatic presentation of that incident. The story to this point, but even more so afterwards is in great part an exploration of the role role of the storyteller as it analyzes issues like intellectual ownership of true stories, the ethics of dramatization and the power of theatrical performance to literally change the course of the lives of the audience
