FOR those who have always wanted to control what happens in a cartoon they can sample the experience with the whole family at Theatre by the Lake this weekend.

Put together by 154 Collective, join adventurer, fearless inventor and connoisseur of carrots Walter Lemonface on Saturday and Sunday, August 20-21, as he hunts for Rhubarb Ogres, battles ghosts and finds a new adventure around every corner.

At times spooky but with a healthy sprinkling of silly, the show features live animation, music and storytelling, and suitable for ages three to eight.

Performances on Saturday are 'pop ups' outside the venue at midday, 1.30pm and 3pm, with a 2pm show in the theatre's Main House on Sunday.

Meanwhile, all six summer season plays are now running in rep until November at the acclaimed, award-winning Keswick theatre in one of its most entertaining programmes yet.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy The Rivals and Rona Munro's psychological drama, Iron, were the final pieces to slip seamlessly into place - The Rivals staged in the theatre's Main House; Iron in its Studio.

Sheridan's comedy is set in the heady heat of summer on the fashionable streets of Georgian Bath, where rich heiress Lydia Languish has three lovers fighting for her hand. But Lydia - a greedy devourer of romantic novels - has set her heart on eloping with a penniless infantry officer, Ensign Beverley, the choice of whom her formidable aunt Mrs Malaprop (a notorious murderer of the dictionary) deeply disapproves. What Lydia doesn’t know is that Beverley is not all he seems.

A stylish, witty revival celebrating Sheridan’s classic masterpiece, the play's a whirlwind of romance, deception and intrigue with dialogue that crackles with wit even today, more than two centuries since it was first penned.

Iron, though, couldn't be more different.

Deeply moving and absorbing, it tells of Josie who hasn’t seen her mother in 15 years; her mother Fay hasn’t had a visitor in 15 years. That is until one day when Josie turns up for prison visiting hours.

Desperate to rediscover her past and longing for answers, Josie embarks on a journey to reconnect with her mother and unearth the truth, to silence the ghosts of her past.

Also running is the gripping noir thriller Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott - famously brought to the big screen by Alfred Hitchcock; a fresh, bold and visceral production of Sophokles’ monumental classic Greek tragedy Elektra, translated by Anne Carson; comic fun in Watch It, Sailor! by Philip King and Falkland L Carey (for anyone who met the characters first time around in Sailor, Beware! this is the next episode); and the gripping and moving The Vertical Hour by one of Britain’s finest and most challenging playwrights, David Hare, where personal philosophies are pitted against global politics, idealism clashes with realism, and cynicism challenges moral obligation.

A first rate programme of plays put together by one of the UK's finest regional theatres.

Box office 017687-74411 or book online at www.theatrebythelake.com.