Yellowknife (Dec 01/06) - It's a familiar scene. On a frosty Christmas Eve, in a suburban basement, three grown siblings bicker and argue about decades-old grudges. One clutches a barely-thawed chicken.

Well, it was close.

Next week, Yellowknife's Lunch Pail Theatre will bring holiday dysfunction to life in their new production, Some Assembly Required by Alberta playwright Eugene Stickland, which opens Dec. 7 at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre.

"It's a fun and quirky little play about family dysfunction," said Brenda Lowen, who stars as Stacy, one of the bickering siblings.

As she and the other siblings, played by Paul MacDonald and Malcolm Walsh, get into a scene, things get more revealing - and more ridiculous. MacDonald, as eldest sibling Walter, works through a flip chart of reasons for and against joining their parents for dinner... in the room just above them.

"I like to think of it as a mix of White Christmas and The Simpsons," said director Ian Johnston. "A lot of people will see certain attributes from their family members."

Johnston said that at the first read-through in July, he was overwhelmed with cries of "I have a brother just like that!"

"It will make them long for home," Lowen said of the play. "Everyone will be able to relate in some capacity or another."

This play will be Johnston's directorial debut in Yellowknife, and the first play he's helmed in over 25 years. Though he studied drama in university, he said coming to Yellowknife four years ago had re-introduced him acting, through Lunch Pail's Dracula.

"It was great, I had the time of my life," he said.

The group rehearses in a converted storage space owned by Yellowknife Dairies, which they share with the Aurora Ukrainian Dancers. The storage units have become popular with many performers in town.

"It's kind of interesting, isn't it? We have this huge room to work with," he said.

The floor was clearly marked into the shape of the stage.

"This is the actual space we have to work with," he added.

Getting back on topic, MacDonald thinks the play has enough to offer to get people out of their cozy homes during the first throes of winter.

"It think it will make people laugh." he said. "Laughing around Christmas, that's like a gift."

Some Assembly Required runs Dec. 7-9 and Dec. 14-16 at 8 p.m. at NACC.