‘The Drawer Boy’ at Abingdon Theater Arts Complex
Alexander Dinelaris
Drawer Boy Alex Fast, left, William Laney and Brad Fryman at June Havoc Theater.
Actors must be thrilled when handed Michael
Healey’s play “The Drawer Boy,” no matter which of the three characters
they’ll be tackling. It’s such a beautifully written piece, humorous and
heart-wrenching but never overwrought, that all you have to do is ride
the vehicle the author has provided. You can concentrate on your
performance, not on dredging humor out of unfunny jokes or tears out of
unconvincing moments.
Follow @NYTimestheater for theater news and reviews from Broadway and beyond.
And the three actors in the Oberon Theater Ensemble’s
fine production at the Abingdon Theater Arts Complex make the most of
the opportunity, especially William Laney and Brad Fryman as old friends
who share a farmhouse in the Canadian countryside. It’s 1972, and Mr.
Fryman plays Morgan, who, we gradually realize, has for years been
caretaker of Angus (Mr. Laney), a man with impaired mental capacities.
Angus’s condition results from an injury
sustained during World War II, and there’s a story behind it. It takes a
stranger to bring that story to the surface; this is a classic
outsider-intrudes-on-a-closed-world play.
The stranger is an actor and writer named
Miles (Alex Fast), who turns up at the door asking to live and work with
Morgan and Angus so that he can learn about farming for the purposes of
writing a play about it. Mr. Fryman finds the dry sense of humor in his
character, who has great fun pulling Miles’s leg with nonsensical
chores and fanciful stories about bovine anxiety.
The performance that locks it all in,
though, is the one by Mr. Laney, who is unforgettable as the confused,
childlike Angus. In the early going Angus is unable to remember basic
things from one minute to the next, including who Miles is and what he’s
doing in their house. But Mr. Healey
has called for a character who is more than just a simpleton, one who
always leaves you suspecting that there is potential behind the eyes.
Mr. Laney, under Alexander Dinelaris’s direction, hits that target
expertly.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário