By Jack Wilson
A new play featuring the Townships’ local lake monster opens Aug. 18 at the Haskell Opera House in Stanstead and Derby Line, Vt. The Bride of Memphré, a comedy written and directed by Ross Murray and put on by Borderline Players, will portray a wedding on the shores of Lake Memphremagog and includes an encounter with Memphré, the lake’s mythical creature.
“I like the idea of a local community seeing their own stories on stage,” Murray said. Staged in a theatre straddling the Quebec-Vermont border, the play should appeal to both Canadians and Americans, he said. As a resident of an international lake, “Memphré has dual citizenship.”
“We have Canadian and American actors; our audience is Canadian and American; Haskell is inviting of Canadians and Americans and Lake Memphremagog is Canadian and American.”
Though named after the lake monster, the play “is not specifically about Memphré, but it’s a jumping off point to tell stories about the characters and what’s going on in their lives,” Murray said.
The comedy is set in Blueberry Point, on Lake Memphremagog in Ogden. Murray said he hoped people living around the lake will attend the performances.
