"It's just a little jewel of a play, and it's surprising that we didn't hear about it before," says McCluggage, who has also served as the Rep's associate artistic director for the past 13 years.

Written by Canadian actor/playwright Michael Healey, The Drawer Boy is the first production of the Rep's new season. Its run—which marks the West Coast premiere of Healey's play—began Aug. 31 and will continue through Sept. 29.

The drama is inspired by the '70s Canadian theater project The Farm Show, in which a group of Toronto actors depicted the experiences of Canadian farmers onstage. As part of their research, the actors lived with the farmers they interviewed, and they even took part in the day-to-day farm labor.

Set in 1972, The Drawer Boy follows Miles (played by Sheffield Chastain), a Farm Show troupe member, as he desperately searches for a story to perform for his play. For his research, Miles stays with a gruff Ontario farmer named Morgan (Dion Anderson), who assigns the young actor a series of bizarre and grueling chores around the farm. The city boy's struggles to adapt to rural labor provide much of the play's comedy.

Morgan also takes care of his lifelong friend Angus (Bob Morrisey), who suffers from short-term memory loss caused by a bombing incident when he fought in World War II with Morgan. Every day Morgan regales Angus with a story about how their lives came to be. Miles overhears Morgan's story and uses it as his monologue for the play, not realizing that the monologue will shake up Morgan and Angus' quiet existence and force both farmers to confront hidden and painful truths about their past.

"I laughed out loud and also was very moved by the story. That's a great combination for me," says McCluggage, describing his reaction to Healey's script. "It's a clean, well-constructed story. It allows for you to get a great cast and design team to interpret it in an exciting and vibrant way."

The Drawer Boy arrives at the Rep with a huge amount of acclaim. In 1999, the play won four Doras (the Canadian equivalent of the Tony Awards), including one for outstanding new play. Frasier star John Mahoney was such a fan of The Drawer Boy that he brought the script to his colleagues at Steppenwolf Theatre. In 2001, the Chicago company staged its production, with Mahoney playing Morgan, and made Time magazine's list of the year's 10 best theater shows.

McCluggage says he's proud of the play's cast at the Rep. Anderson and Morrisey are veterans of both the stage and episodic television, and Chastain has some ties to the Bay Area theater scene.

"I noticed on his résumé that he had credits for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. He said to me, 'I grew up watching you.' He named some shows that he had seen me in at the Rep. That dates you a little bit, but it's nice to be known for something," McCluggage says.

McCluggage is confident that Bay Area audiences will enjoy The Drawer Boy, even though there are references to Canadian culture that might puzzle some Americans.

"Some of the references to things like Freshie, a Canadian Kool-Aid knockoff, may have a certain colloquial quality that they'll laugh at in Canada, but people will still get the story of The Drawer Boy and the relationships," McCluggage says. "I'm very confident that it's going to do well here."

'The Drawer Boy' will run until Sept. 29 at the San José Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose. Tickets are $20­$48. For more information, call 408.367.7255 or visit www.sjrep.com.