Erica Piccininni plays “Gina” in “Moose on the Loose.” (photo courtesy of Theatre West)

“Moose on the Loose” really doesn’t have much to do with the moose that’s actually on the loose. The play, a comedy currently performing at Theatre West, centers around an Italian Canadian family and a large-scale dinner in which all the parents, the four grown children, a grandchild, a spouse, a girlfriend and the grandparents are all together again.

Erica Piccininni plays one of the children, Gina, who’s just gotten back to Canada from her current home in Rome, where she has some kind of cushy job. She’s got some big news for the family: she’s pregnant. And she’s not married. And while this may knock the lid off the gathering, it’s the father, Giuseppe (Stuart W. Howard), who inadvertently wanders into the biggest surprise of the day. The result brings together the entire clan at a police station.

Bookending the proceedings is the moose of the title, who serves as a kind of narrator. Along the way, themes of pride, belonging, community and love circle into the equation.

It all weaves carefully. The play does a good job of setting up each character – which is necessary because this is a large family. It isn’t easy to juggle this many people on a stage, but by intermission, the audience has an understanding of everyone, and each character has their own unique little arc that becomes a part of the larger themes.

Most importantly, it brings the chuckles. The story takes place in 1999, a time when cell phones were less common and taking the phone off the hook is how you kept a residence from being disturbed. This detail provides some of the humor whenever a phone call becomes vitally important to one of the characters.

Although a talking moose is involved in the proceedings, the story is most remarkable in how grounded in reality it is. There’s really nothing too fantastical or out-of-left-field that happens here. Instead, we get normal, everyday things happening to a normal, everyday family.

And along the way the audience gets a lesson in generational struggles, particularly of immigrant families. The older generations want to preserve identity, while the younger generations want both the approval of their forbearers and to carve their own, unique path. The play touches on the idea that home is more than a physical location, and that sometimes being displaced is indeed how someone is able to find where they were supposed to be all along.

It’s all wrapped up in a neat, couple-hour package in the intimate Theatre West venue. Several of the organization’s regular players make appearances, and the cast is uniformly excellent – so much so that it is difficult to pick a standout. The chemistry between the performers is natural and sells the family dynamic. The lynchpin, though, might be Constance Mellors, who plays the matriarch, bringing an exasperated, consistently hilarious tinge to her character.

The play was written by Dina Morrone, and it is directed by Peter Flood.

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through May 21. For tickets, visit theatrewest.org/on-stage/2023/moose-on-the-loose-2023. Theatre West is located at 3333 Cahuenga Blvd.