Monthly Archives: May 2022

Nextfest 2022, live and under one roof, at the new Roxy

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca When you ask Nextfest artistic director Ellen Chorley what’s new at the festival this year, she laughs. “Everything!” she says of the 27th annual edition of the influential multi-disciplinary festival that showcases and celebrates emerging artists. … Continue reading

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Art will prevail: a change of venue for L’UniThéâtre’s season finale

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If the last two years have taught us anything it’s that art will prevail. And so will Art, the, er, art-ful 1994 Yasmina Reza hit comedy that is  L’UniThéâtre’s season finale.  Last Friday night’s storm and … Continue reading

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A comedy thriller with a Wagnerian reverb: Evelyn Strange at Teatro, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A beautiful amnesiac in a trench coat finds herself in a grand tier box at the Met c. 1955, sitting through a performance of Wagner’s five-hour Siegfried. She needs time to think and, hey, The Ring … Continue reading

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The one-way time portal into war: Alina, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Trains, they’re like time portals,” says the title character of Alina, who steps into one at the outset. On a train you leave one world and you arrive in another.  The question the drives the gripping … Continue reading

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Destination Fringe: Edmonton Fringe Theatre is back with a moniker, a live festival, and a curated season of productions

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Edmonton Fringe is back, live, this summer, for a big 41st edition, in a place where that really matters. And its name speaks volumes: Destination Fringe. Yes, fellow travellers, as live theatre emerges from the … Continue reading

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The strange cycles of theatre: Shannon Blanchet returns to Teatro to direct the vintage comedy thriller Evelyn Strange

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Every once in a while the world of live theatre pulls off one of those satisfying but fanciful multi-strand time loops that wouldn’t be out of place in a play. Opera is involved; so is comedy. … Continue reading

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The inheritance of war and the passion for freedom: Alina is a Ukrainian story

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In early 2015, a 19-year-old woman left Kyiv, and everything in her life there — and she went to the front line of the war zone in eastern Ukraine. Alina was not a soldier. She was … Continue reading

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An ensemble devoted to expanding the comedy spectrum: Teatro at 40, the birthday season continues

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Teatro La Quindicina at 40. An artist-run company specially tuned to comedy, with co-artistic directors who both made their Teatro debuts as actors: same season (2005-2006), different plays, roles written specially for them by playwright/Teatro muse … Continue reading

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Sexual assault in the world of Friend or Unfriend: Tell Us What Happened at Workshop West. A review.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In Michelle Robb’s tense new play, premiering at Workshop West in Heather Inglis’s production, young characters slam up hard against complicated questions — at contradictory angles. But here’s the rub: they live in a world that … Continue reading

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Revenge, cartoon-style: 9 to 5 the musical at the Citadel, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Joy to the girls. The vintage revenge fantasy now charging around the office on the Citadel’s Maclab stage — propelled by Dolly Parton songs and a perennial point about exploitation of women in the work place … Continue reading

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