Calgary theatre dives into horror-comedy with lake monster lore at Fish Creek Park

Is there something in the water or are their drinks just stronger than they thought? Incendiary Festival’s latest outdoor show blends summer camp nostalgia with slasher suspense in a site-specific horror-comedy staged in the woods.

A group of camp counsellors, finally free of their campers for the weekend, just want to blow off steam. But when people start disappearing, the party vibe curdles into paranoia. Is it someone lurking in the woods, or is the lake monster they joke about actually real?

That’s the premise of In the Water, a new play by Edmonton-based playwright Alyssa Short, brought to life by Calgary’s Incendiary Festival. The show is staged just past the amphitheatre at Hull’s Wood in Fish Creek Park, where the trees, river, and shadows become part of the story.

Meet Incendiary Festival

Founded in 2017 in Rosebud, Alta., Incendiary Festival began as a summer project for theatre students to keep creating between semesters. It’s since grown into a Calgary-based indie company known for immersive, site-specific work and a strong commitment to emerging artists.

“The goal of the company is to continue to allow it to be a space that other emerging artists can also practice in a lower-stakes environment,” says Jack O’Ryan, executive producer and co-director. “We’d like to get the company to a place that we can just pay people. So the end goal is to not stay community, but to get more towards indie semi-professional.”

Incendiary’s past shows have taken place in abandoned houses, on the banks of the Bow River, and even in graveyards. Their work is offbeat, intimate, and often a little eerie.

“We love to do immersive pieces in found space theatres,” says O’Ryan. “We want the whole thing to be an experience from the moment they step into the playing space.”

Incendiary operates in the gray area between professional and community theatre. Offering a profit share for artists that work on the production but also encouraging experimentation and emerging issues.

Into the Woods

In the Water is no exception. Audience members are guided into a clearing in the woods, where folding chairs are set up in a tight semicircle. The cast of eight—most of them new to Incendiary — emerge from the trees, the bushes, and sometimes from behind the audience itself.

“Backstage for the actors is a really unique experience,” says O’Ryan. “It’s a lot of them hiding in the bushes, behind trees. We trust that dads won’t turn around too much when they shouldn’t be.”

The show runs about 80 minutes and is capped at 15–20 audience members per performance to preserve the intimacy, and the tension.

“It’s so delightfully funny, which I find great in horror shows because it helps release a little bit of the tension,” says O’Ryan. “These actors are incredible. Lots of them have never done outdoor theatre before. They’re really killing it—in more ways than one.”

In The Water has show dates on the weekends from July 5-12, but already at time of press, the first two shows are sold out.

Tickets can be found here.