Scarborough Players’ You Can’t Take It With You opens on April 4 at the Scarborough Village Theatre

Scarborough Players’ production of You Can’t Take It With You opens on Friday, April 4, at the Scarborough Village Theatre.

The comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman asks the question: What do you do when you love your family but can’t help being embarrassed by them?

The Sycamore family’s eccentric lifestyle is a testament to living life joyfully and on one’s own terms. However, when daughter, Alice brings her fiancé’s, straight-laced family to dinner, hilarity ensues, leaving everyone questioning what it means to be normal and whether or not it’s worth it.

You Can’t Take It With You has been charming audiences for decades with its story that celebrates life and the courage to embrace one’s individuality.

The Scarborough Players’ production is produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Services, Inc., and the play is recommended for audiences 10 years of age and old.

The epitome of the situation comedy, Kaufman and Hart created the Vanderhof/Sycamore family who live their lives in a wonderful, creative world of constant improvisation – a typewriter arrives, and plays are written. People enter their home and stay – why not!

Living near Columbia University, Grandpa, Martin Vanderhof, visits Commencement Ceremonies, listens to speeches, watches the graduates, and feels glad that he isn’t young anymore.

The youngest daughter, Alice Sycamore, is the only one that seems to be living what one might call “a normal life”.

She goes to work each day in an office while her older sister, Essie Carmichael, dances and makes candy, her brother-in-law, Ed, delivers the candy and plays the xylophone, her father, Paul Sycamore, makes fireworks, and her mother, Penny, writes or paints.

There is much love in the home and people are welcomed, embraced, and just decide to stay, like Mr. De Pinna. Oh, and there are snakes in the dining room.

The situation becomes complicated when Alice falls in love and gets engaged to Tony Kirby, her boss’s son. Mr. Kirby is a high-powered Wall Street businessman. With the nuptials on the horizon, Alice invites the strait-laced Kirbys to dinner to meet her family. Talk about fireworks exploding!

Enjoying all the fun is a most talented cast.

Returning to the stage for the Scarborough Players are Bil Antoniou as Mr. Kirby; Paul Coady as Martin Vanderhof; Carolyn Williamson as Rheba; Alma Sinan as the Grand Duchess; Victoria Badham as Mrs. Kirby; Drew Smylie as Paul Sycamore; David Rudat as Mr. De Pinna; and Stephen Flett as Mr. Henderson. Returning after a long absence are Tom Girling as Donald; Rob Walker as Tony Kirby; and Barbara Horsburgh as Gay Wellington.

For this production, Scarborough Players is also thrilled to welcome Erin Mackie as Penny Sycamore; Monica Horsburgh as Alice Sycamore; Victoria Rose as Essie Carmichael; Sam Wheller as Ed Carmichael; Julio Torres as Boris Kolenkhov; and August Peters and Aiden Oak as the G-men.

A talented team has gathered to capture the 1936 home of the Vanderhof/Sycamores.

The team includes fight and intimacy director Mercedes Davy; props designer Eileen Dalton; sound designer Larry Westlake; and lighting designer Jennifer Bakker.

The Costume Squad is headed by Mary Nowlan with Annette Heitzner, Sheila Gatensby, Denise Daly and Katherine Turner. The builders and painters are led by set designer Greg Nowlan.

All this is held together by the watchful eye of stage manager Wendy Miller with help from her assistant stage manager Joey McCormick and crew.

You Can’t Take It With You is a delightful comedy and a breath of spring air.

The production is on stage from April 4 to 19. Scarborough Village Theatre is located at 3600 Kingston Rd. To order tickets for You Can’t Take It With You, or for more information, please visit https://theatrescarborough.godaddysites.com/ or call 416-267-9292.