Though Island Stage Left is not performing Shakespeare, “The Drawer Boy” by Michael Healey, has been called one of the greatest Canadian plays ever written, opens Thursday, July 24, at Island Stage Left on Wold Road.

“It is one of our favorite more modern plays,” Helen Machin-Smith, co-founder of Island Stage Left, said, adding that it is both funny and gentle, but also doesn’t shy away from life’s heavier side. There will be laughing and crying, says Machin-Smith, adding that the play “has something for everyone.”

Island Stage Left is well known for their outdoor Shakespeare productions. Machin-Smith explained that after decades of putting on the shows, they increasingly difficult due to struggles finding housing for off-island actors as well as new state requirements that tangled the theatre troupe in red tape.

“I grieved having to let Shakespeare go,” Machin-Smith said, “I’m still grieving, but I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Despite the change, Island Stage Left with theatre beneath the stars performances is very much alive and well.

“The Drawer Boy” is based on the collective creation of the early 1970’s “The Farm Show.” In preparing for the show, a group of actors go on assignment to gather the stories of Ontario’s rural farmers. According to Machin-Smith, the acting troupe stayed with the farmers for weeks, getting to know them and learn about their lives.

“One of the girls in that group of actors spoke about the experience and said it was awkward, at first getting to know them, but when they had something to say, they opened up,” Dan Mayes, Stage Left’s co-founder, said.

Machin-Smith added that the actors and farmers formed life long friendships, and did indeed watch the play, which turned out to be a huge hit, where the actors not only played human roles, but the machinery as well.

This particular play focuses on two of those farmers. The ensemble consists of Mayes and Kevin Loomis as the farmers while the young man is played by Owen Kreger-Stickles.

Kreger-Stickles, Machin-Smith said, has natural acting talent of his own right, but she has also watched him grow from working with acting veterans such as Mayes and Loomis.

“It has been a tight group of the five,” Machin-Smith said, including the actors, Machin-Smith and Josephine Kreger-Stickles, Owen’s sister, who volunteered to help as stage manager and prop master.

“She wants to be a director,” said Machin-Smith, “and she will do it.”

Both Mayes and Machin-Smith also gave a shout-out to Susan Williams who has been invaluable to the Stage Left team, lending her creative eye and support.

“This is a fun play to do,” Mayes said, saying as an actor, this particular character is one he can lose himself in. “He talks when he has something to say.”

Interestingly, this will be the second time Mayes and Loomis have been in this play together.

While these farmers are the backbone of the play, entwined in the tale is the power of storytelling, and what happens when a story is told so often it becomes canon.

“It’s a story that is told out of love,” Mayes says, careful not to give anything away, before sliping out one of his lines, “You put that in your play and I’ll see to it you never put it on!”

The play runs Thursdays –Sundays from July 24-Aug. 17 at 8 p.m. Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted.

Dress warmly and bring a blanket, and enjoy theatre under the stars.