Monthly Archives: April 2019

The Shadow knows: putting the comedy back into Chekhov, and the new season

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “If everyone took anti-depressants, Chekhov would have had nothing to write about….” The playwright himself called it “Chekhov in a blender.” But Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, by the raucous American absurdist Christopher Durang … Continue reading →

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Nassim, an adventure in language and connection: meet playwright Nassim Soleimanpour

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The last time I talked to Nassim Soleimanpour, six years ago, the Iranian playwright was in the middle of Tehran on a cellphone that kept fading out, and I had laryngitis. There’s got to be an … Continue reading →

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Romance into tragedy: the dark, violent, original new hearing-deaf Tempest at the Citadel. A review.

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It never stops raining in the version of The Tempest that’s now lashing and splashing and skidding across the Citadel mainstage. As the Fool in Twelfth Night sings (borrowed by this wettest of Tempests for the … Continue reading →

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Two big birthdays, one big bash: Rubaboo and Dreamspeakers festivals

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The celebration of Indigenous artists and their many-sided contributions to our shared culture takes another step forward with the tandem anniversary editions of the Rubaboo Arts Festival and the Dreamspeakers Film Festival today through May 7. … Continue reading →

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“The hour’s now come”: deaf and hearing actors together in The Tempest at the Citadel

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “O brave new world, that has such people in’t,” as Miranda, the daughter of a deposed ruler in exile, says in wonder towards the end of one of Shakespeare’s most mysterious and haunting plays. In the … Continue reading →

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The House Series: comedy, cabaret, and music at the Citadel next season

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Girl Brain, the sketch comedy troupe that zigzags through the lively minds of three smart and funny women, is being lured downtown for a weekend next season at the Citadel. Alyson Dicey, Caley Suliak and Ellie … Continue reading →

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“Congratulations, Your Majesty!” The Empress and the Prime Minister at Theatre Network. A review

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In a week when inclusivity, tolerance, equality took a major body blow in the Alberta election, it was particularly moving — almost uncanny, really — to see The Empress and the Prime Minister at Theatre Network. … Continue reading →

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Sanctifunkadelic: Sister Act at the Mayfield. A review

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

  By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Raise the stakes! Raise the game! Raise your voice,” sing the nuns of Sister Act, newly kitted out as a showbiz soul ensemble by the latest recruit to the Sisterhood. “Feel the flow, dig the … Continue reading →

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An anniversary, and a new Darrin Hagen play: we talk to the playwright and his co-star in The Empress & The Prime Minister

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s been half a century, amazingly, since a spontaneous, and violent, demonstration in a dive bar in New York’s Greenwich Village that would prove to be a galvanizing event in the history of the American gay … Continue reading →

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A grown-up homecoming in a moving musical: Fun Home, a review

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca We are all haunted, every one of us. By the great mysteries of our past: our families. By the questions we live with that never got answered. By the tiny moments that slipped by at the … Continue reading →

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