{"id":16131,"date":"2018-07-09T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16131"},"modified":"2018-07-11T09:20:14","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T16:20:14","slug":"blue-bridge-takes-a-canadian-theatre-classic-out-of-the-drawer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/07\/09\/blue-bridge-takes-a-canadian-theatre-classic-out-of-the-drawer\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Bridge takes a Canadian theatre classic out of the drawer"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many, Michael Healey\u2019s The Drawer Boy<\/i> is considered a gem in Canadian theatre. A three-person, two-act play that takes place on a farm, The Drawer Boy <\/i>blends humour and drama into a tale about memories and stories, and the blurred lines between them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As their tenth season begins to wind down, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre is tackling this Canadian classic, transforming the Roxy Theatre into an Ontario farmhouse.<\/p>\n

Director Jacob Richmond took on\u00a0the challenge of bringing this show to Victoria with enthusiasm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful story. Just beautifully written, beautifully constructed,\u201d says Richmond. \u201cIt just packs a really emotional wallop, and you never really see it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Drawer Boy<\/em> is considered a Canadian classic, and it\u2019s on now at Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre (photo by Jam Hamidi).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Richmond, one of the biggest draws was the intimate cast of Michael Armstrong, Griffin Lea, and Gary Farmer, a group of actors with great chemistry who Richmond had worked with in the past and was enthusiastic to work with again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Gary Farmer as an actor since I was a kid, and Michael and I have done a couple of shows together,\u201d says Richmond. \u201cGriffin works a lot with another company I work with.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This dream team has allowed the production process to run fairly smoothly, according to Richmond; however, that\u2019s not to say it hasn\u2019t been without its challenges. Although the play is on the shorter side (the first act clocks in at around 50 minutes, the second about 40 minutes), with only three actors on stage, there\u2019s a hearty amount of dialogue for the characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tricky one because it is a play about memories, but actually, believe it or not, when you\u2019re always talking about memories and losing your memory, it\u2019s really hard to remember your lines,\u201d laughs Richmond. \u201cSo, that\u2019s been a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richmond believes that because the writing is so strong the audience feels like they\u2019re peeking inside a house, watching three people talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it all revolves around one particular story they tell each other, whether it\u2019s true or false, you leave feeling that it\u2019s quite an uplifting piece on that front because you leave realizing what\u2019s important is friendship, connection to things, and people trying to protect each other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Richmond hopes that people will walk away from the play with an appreciation for humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always great to see something that reminds you of the beauty of friendship and collective stories,\u201d he says. \u201cThe beauty of these three characters is something that will really resonate with the audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The play centres around the stories the three tell each other while unravelling the past, and leaves audience members to question whether what the characters are saying is true or false and wondering, on a larger scale, who gets the right to tell a story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho does a story belong to?\u201d muses Richmond. \u201cIt really gets into those kinds of things. It really creeps up on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The slow build of the play gives multiple facets to the characters and plot, something Richmond has enjoyed discovering through the rehearsal process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I\u2019ve worked on it, the more I\u2019ve discovered how many actual layers are in it,\u201d says Richmond. \u201cThere is quite a bit to actually think about after you leave the theatre, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Drawer Boy
\n<\/i>Various times,\u00a0until Sunday, July 15
\nVarious prices, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre
\nbluebridgetheatre.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many, Michael Healey\u2019s The Drawer Boy is considered a gem in Canadian theatre. A three-person, two-act play that takes place on a farm, The Drawer Boy blends humour and drama into a tale about memories and stories, and the blurred lines between them.\u00a0 As their tenth season begins to wind down, Blue Bridge Repertory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-july-11-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16133,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131\/revisions\/16133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}