June 10-14 at Fanshawe Pioneer Village, Alvegoroot Theatre presents Take the Big Picture, a two-act play based on James Reaney’s 1986 children’s novel. Director Adam Corrigan Holowitz describes his adaptation as a story about a family in conflict with the modern world:

The story:
The Delahay family is more than a little off balance and seventeen-year-old Colin is doing everything he can to keep his family heading in a somewhat logical direction. The chaos devised by his little brothers, “The Terrible Triplets”, sends his mother into a nervous breakdown and their grandmother banishes the rest of the family to British Columbia.

Safe from the temptations of the modern world, Colin begins reforming his brothers and persuades his father to learn to drive. Now the family is racing down the Trans-Canada back to London, before their house falls in the river and the frayed ends of their lives unravel beyond repair.

The characters:
Most of the responsibility for getting the family through their trials and tribulations falls to the eldest son, 17-year-old Colin. It is the stories Colin tells which begins to bring the family back together.

Four intrepid actors play all the characters. The combinations of characters that the actors portray is very intentional. Tina Sterling plays both Grandmother and all three Triplets who operate like a playful three-headed monster. This highlights both the contrasts between these characters and also the similarities in how the Triplets and Grandmother are extremely independent and self-determined.

Taylor Bogaert plays both Andre, the father, and Colin, the son, and in that we see how father and son are similar but also that they belong to different generations. Over the course of the play Andre comes to realize that there are parts of the modern world that he will never understand. The Delahays are eccentric and unmanageable and the actor’s task of depicting the family onstage carries the same frenetic energy as the family themselves. My hope is that this will be equally as thrilling for the audience and actors.

Written and directed by Adam Corrigan Holowitz.

Performed by Taylor Bogaert, Alexandrea Marsh, Kydra Ryan, and Tina Sterling.

Where: Fanshawe Pioneer Village, 1424 Clarke Road, London, Ontario.
When: Evening performances on Wednesday June 10 to Friday June 12 at 7:30 pm; Matinees on Saturday June 13 and Sunday June 14 at 3:00 pm.

Tickets available from OnStage Direct.

June 10 at 7:30 PM
June 11 at 7:30 PM
June 12 at 7:30 PM
June 13 at 3:00 PM
June 14 at 3:00 PM