John Murchie’s, He Searches For — the adventures of the boy known throughout the world as Big Boy — is a tragic comedy. The performance is a reading. It is the telling of a tale — spontaneous, unedited documentation of the escapades of Big Boy — a novel thirty chapters in length, written a chapter a day soon after Big Boy’s conception. Spotlit, in a darkened gallery, accompanied by between-chapter interludes on the harmonium, John performs the tale over the period of an hour with an intermission. Big Boy’s search for love and happiness is an indiscriminate, trifling and random journey exploring the boundaries between the stage and everything else.
After immigrating to Canada in 1967 John Murchie has earned a living as a librarian, farmer, writer, researcher, curator, cook, baker, and arts administrator. He currently works as the Coordinator for Struts Gallery in Sackville, and has exhibited, published, curated and lectured extensively throughout Canada.
