ATHABASCA — A strong, smart, and caring frontier woman meets a brash, confident, and charming man and within hours they are married — then hilarity ensues in the latest Big River Arts Society (BRASS) latest production, coming in June.
In the play Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Milly Bradon, played by Tina Behr, meets Adam Pontipee, as performed by Ben Kiselyk, who quickly fall in love and get married and once Ponitpee introduces his bride to his six brothers, they want wives too. The twist is, Behr and Kiselyk are a real-life couple planning to wed later this year.
“It was 2020 that we were going to do this show, but it ended up getting dialed back,” Kiselyk said in an April 29 interview with Behr. “I was part of that show, same role, same everything.”
“And I was backstage manager at that point,” added Behr. “When it came around again this year, we lost our lead lady so, Gina (Martel) and Leah (Cook) had to find somebody and mentioned ‘Hey, you should do it’ and I thought, ‘What the heck, let’s just go for it.’ So, it was kind of a big change.”
It’s old hat for Kiselyk who started taking singing lessons with Mary Olson when he was five and acted throughout school and with BRASS growing up and added this production is his favourite because he gets to be in it with Behr.
“A, because I’m doing it with Tina, and B, we’re the leads so there’s a little more drive behind it,” he said.
Martel, who directs the play, has had some challenges in adapting the play to fit the space at the Athabasca Ag Society Hall instead of the Nancy Appleby Theatre where the theatre part of the annual dinner theatre was usually held.
“We brought the step today to make sure it was going to roll, it fit in the space and wasn’t going to damage the floor,” she said May 14 after a day-long rehearsal.
But the delay has had some benefits, she added.
“We did recast a couple of the parts because of course, two years later, not everybody's availability is the same,” said Martel. "We've been able to have spouses or girlfriends join their significant others. So, it's nice to see couples doing an activity like this together.”
There are evening performances June 3 and 4 and one matinee show June 5. Tickets are available on Eventbrite under Big River Arts Society.
