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by Rebecca Northan & Bruce Horak, directed by Rebecca Northan

Spontaneous Theatre, Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

August 14-October 4, 2025

Jan: “So do you think you’re ready to make an arrest?”

The show with the most laughs per minute at this year’s Shaw Festival is Murder-on-the-Lake by Rebecca Northan & Bruce Horak. I haven’t had this much fun in the theatre for a long time. Murder-on-the-Lake is the latest improvisational creation of Spontaneous Theatre, of which Northan and Horak are Co-Artistic Directors. A murder has been committed in the Niagara Region, and the police deputize a volunteer from the audience (no one is chosen against their will) to lead the investigation. The results are hilarious – not at the volunteer’s expense but because of the extraordinarily ingenious way the mystery has been set up and how the cast copes with the presence of the new rookie detective.

Though most of the play is improvised, Northan and Horak have imagined a basic story and characters with fixed identities to give the evening structure. The basic story is that a wealthy woman named Jan died at an exclusive B&B on an island in Lake Ontario only twelve hours after her wedding. Her new spouse inherited everything. That was a year ago, but new evidence has come to light (Toronto crime labs being so slow) that show Jan did not die of a heart attack as first supposed but of aconite poisoning likely obtained from the plant wolfsbane growing on the island. The set for the B&B is the same set by Judith Bowden used for Tons of Money.

Now all those who were present when Jan died have gathered again on the island for a memorial service. Since the murderer must have been one of those present when Jan died, now is the perfect time for a detective to investigate.

D.S. Collins of the Niagara Region Police Department chooses a name from a list of people who have said they are willing to volunteer to be the rookie Detective she needs. The Detective will go undercover at the B&B and is free to snoop around the place when alone. The Detective is also wired so that if any fellow guests are having a private conversation, the Detective can sidle near to them and their words will be transmitted to the D.S. on the mainland. (Cleverly, the wire also serves as a mic to amplify the voice of the Volunteer who can’t be expected to project.) Besides this, Bentley, the man who runs the B&B, is apprised of these arrangements and is the Detective’s contact on site should any help be necessary.

Those fearful of volunteering should know that Northan has built in a large number of strategies to help any rookie Detective and make them feel safe. As in Northan’s smash hit Blind Date (2010), Northan has designated a small square of the stage (considered outside the playing area) as a safe space. If the volunteer feels the need to ask a question or needs a reminder, the volunteer can ask for a time out and go to the space to talk with Northan. Conversely, Northan can also call for a time out to talk to the volunteer. In the performance I attended no one needed to use the safe space.

Having the character Bentley available also provides the Detective with a further backup when on stage. Not only this, but Northan and Horak have come up with a brilliant way to keep the story and, if need be, the Detective on track. Shortly after the Detective is alone and has done a preliminary search of the premises, Rebecca Northan appears not as D.S. Collins but as Jan. How can this be? Well, this is the ghost of Jan, whom, for unknown reasons, only the Detective can see and hear. Including Jan as a ghost is great idea because Jan, who wants to know who murdered her more than anyone, is able to supply the Detective with background information and make suggestions about what to do and what questions to ask.

The ghost also is a source of comedy since the Detective must remember that no one else can see or hear her. If the Detective speaks to her when others are present, they will think he is talking to himself. The fun is how the Detective explains away his strange actions.

Another wonderful idea, funny in itself, which helps both the Detective and the audience is that the cast is colour coded like the characters in the game Clue, wearing everything from shoes to top in the same colour – whether light blue, powder blue, cobalt blue, yellow, red, orange or purple. The refence to Clue in amusing, but, as it transpires, it is far easier for the Detective (and for us) to remember what colour a character is wearing than his or her name.

As any fan of Agatha Christie knows, in any small, isolated group there is seldom only one murder. And indeed, another murder does happen but when it occurs and who is the victim are major surprises for us to ponder during the intermission. Also, in the mode of Christie, Northan and Horak have constructed an excellent story in which the characters and discoveries of the Detective provide us with enough clues that we feel motivated to try to solve the mystery ourselves. We, like the Detective, have to sort the relevant information from the irrelevant to come to a conclusion.

Murder-on-the-Lake provides so many sources of fun that the laughter never stops. The volunteer Detective trying to be taken as an expert despite being newly thrust into a complex situation may be the prime reason people attend, but we don’t laugh at the volunteer but rather at the strange people and circumstances the volunteer encounters. Then, the mystery itself is fun since it echoes so many tropes of the cozy mystery genre and even ends with the archetypal Hercule Poirot scene of gathering all the suspects in a room for his summary remarks and final accusations. In addition to all this are the superb performances of the ensemble all of whom exhibit suspicious behaviour and make peculiar remarks without ever going over the top.

Northan is very funny as the tough but wry DS Collins contrasting completely with her waifish and confused Jan. Travis Seetoo always gives Bentley an underlying air of agitation, a young man still troubled by Jan’s death. The evening I attended Sochi Fried demonstrated convincing grief as Gloria, Jan’s wife. Cosette Derome, as Gloria’s new girlfriend, seemed irritated by an imputation of impropriety but free of guilt for Jan’s murder, not having been on the island when Jan was murdered. Kristopher Bowman seemed to enjoy the chance of playing Patrick, a slightly effete ladies’ man as a change from all the tough guys he so often plays. Bruce Horak’s angry misanthropy as John made him seem a suspect, while Martin Happer’s oddly emotional born-again Gregory mostly seemed to be the group’s resident weirdo. On this night Virgilia Griffith was consigned to the small part of D.S. Collins’s assistant.

More important than their individual identities, however, is how beautifully the cast works together as an ensemble in helping move the action along and amplifying the actions of the volunteer. When two characters plan to have a private conversation, one says to the other, “Let’s have a private conversation”, which phrase signals to the Detective that it is time to sneak up nearby to eavesdrop. The cast also quickly pick up ideas from the Detective that they later employ. At the performance I attended the Detective, a medical researcher in real life, questioned John and discovered that John is a chiropractor. “So not a real doctor”, the Detective commented to huge laughter. After that every member of the cast made allision to this remark to John’s increasing anger, thus weaving one of many contributions of the volunteer into the varicoloured tapestry of the basic story.

One amazing feature of the play, revealed only at the very end, is that the actors choose their roles for the next performance by lot irrespective of gender. Not only will there be a different Detective at the next performance but six of the eight actors will likely be playing entirely different roles. The evening I attended Jan had been married to another woman who had then moved on rather too quickly after her death to a second female lover. From the choice made the evening I attended, at the next performance Jan would have had a husband who then had moved on rather too quickly to a male lover. Anything can happen. This fact alone should motivate anyone to see the show more than once, and to experience the fun all over again.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Cosette Derome, Bruce Horak, Martin Happer, Rebecca Northan, Travis Seetoo, Virgilia Griffth and Kristopher Bowman; Cosette Derome, Rebecca Northan and Martin Happer; Travis Seetoo and Kristopher Bowman. © 2025 Michael Cooper.

For tickets visit: www.shawfest.com.