Many know Tom Thomson as one of Canada’s most famous artists, but Victoria McIntyre knows him as a friend of her great uncle.
And perhaps, the two men were more than just friends.
On Sept. 27, Theatre Georgian Bay will perform a public reading of the award-winning play A Portrait of Two Men, written by McIntyre and Chloë Rose Flowers.
The play follows the story of Thomson and doctor John McRuer who met while both living in a rooming house in downtown Toronto in the early 1910s. McRuer is McIntyre’s great-uncle, and she was inspired to write the play based on letters, photographs and old stories of the two men and their relationship.
“They were very close,” McIntyre told CollingwoodToday. “I grew up hearing about the family connection to Tom.”
“I felt it was a story that had to be told,” she said.
McIntyre and Flowers met in a playwriting class and have been friends since, collaborating on multiple projects. They sought to write the play together, focusing the story on Thomson’s life, rather than his art from a fresh perspective.
While Thomson has been linked with Winifred Trainor and they were rumoured to be engaged, little is known about their relationship and Thomson died before they were able to marry.
“When her close friends were interviewed about it, they said, ‘Tom’s not the marrying kind.’ In that time period, that was code for being homosexual,” said McIntyre.
Over the years, Thomson gifted John a few different paintings, which McIntyre’s family have donated. They also have multiple photographs of the two together.
“He was the best man at John’s wedding, and painted a portrait of John and his wife Edith,” she said. “The woman is looking directly at the man and reaching across the table and the man is withdrawn.”
“They don’t look in love,” she said.
One of the photographs in McIntyre’s family collection includes a photo taken by McIntyre’s great-grandfather of McRuer and Thomson in a canoe together.
“They’re bent toward each other. There are photos like that discovered years ago. It was the source of inspiration for the play,” she said.
McRuer and Thomson remained close friends until McRuer's death in June 1917, just before Thomson's drowning the same year.
“This was all happening in the 1910s...that was a time where you could go to jail for being gay in Canada. It wasn’t accepted in society,” she said. “We were fascinated that other people and experts had picked up on this.”
Theatre Georgian Bay’s production of A Portrait of Two Men will take place on Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Butter Gallery, and space is limited. Following the show, McIntyre and Flowers will be available to answer questions, and will have photographs and paintings on display that inspired the play.
For more information and to reserve a seat, click here.
