When you don’t have television, you have to look for entertainment outside of the box and theatre on the lake provided just that – good entertainment in an out-of-the-box location, a pontoon stage on the lake. Each summer, our good friends Tennille and Chris produce Theatre on the Lake, a festival of one act plays on the beautiful Frame Lake.

May Fly flutters her eyelashes at her suitor in Time Flies
On the steps of the Prince of Wales Heritage Museum overlooking the lake, the festival was performed during lunchtimes and again in the evenings. You could even purchase delicious lunchboxes at lunchtime and bannock in the evening from the museum cafe.
With a stellar cast, an engaged audience and sunshine, the festival featured local plays like Sitting for a Conversation and The Shockingly Verbose Brain-Death of Jim Whipplestick as well as famous playwright David Ives’s Time Flies and a slapstick improvisation Commedia dell’Arte, Pantelone Gets a Wooden Coin. And what fun we had…

David Attenborough waxes lyrical about the rituals of the may fly
Sitting for a Conversation had a distinctly Yellowknife flavour as it was set on a houseboat with characters the epitomise the north – a straight shooting, hard drinking Aunt Em and a young women searching for meaning and direction in life. The stunning conclusion certainly left room for thought.
On the other hand, The Shockingly Verbose Brain-Death of Jim Whipplestick provided laughter and randomness as an idiot sought to bargain with death for a second chance at life.
My favourite play was Time Flies, an hilarious story about love and life for two may-flies, who only have a 24-hour lifespan. Set in a swamp, the location of the stage on the lake was rather apt and the appearance of David Attenborough was fabulous.
The final play was the improvised comedy, Commedia dell’Arte. I’m no thespian but thanks to Theatre on the Lake (and a quick search just now on wikipedia), I now know:
Commedia dell’Arte (Italian: “the comedy of art (of improvisation)”) is a form of improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 15th century, maintained its popularity through the 16th century, and is still performed today.Performances were unscripted, held outside and used few props. They were funded by donations and anyone could view the performance free of charge.
And it’s wonderful to see this form of theatre come to life in the knife! The masked cast regaled us with laughter and wit as we watched Pantelone get ripped off with counterfeit wooden coins and then seek revenge. The play even involved audience participation when James was selected from the audience to arm wrestle Valerio for the beautiful Isabella. He didn’t win – but then again, he’s already won my heart.

James arm wrestles Valerio to win the heart of Isabella




















