Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls, House of Hush and Send in the Girls. Photo by DB photographic.a

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Get haunted, at an Edmonton theatre (a couple of options).

•The sassy burlesque artists of Send in the Girls and House of Hush, have never shied away from uncovering stories from history, then uncorseting them, for their revues. Tonight and Friday they’re bringing back their sold-out 2022 Fringe hit Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls, this time to the Varscona stage.

It comes with a uniquely alluring warning: “ mentions of death, murder, drowning, illness, falling from great heights, the dark, ghosts, ghouls, creepy stories and hauntings.”

The script is by Ellen Chorley — playwright/ actor/ director/ Nextfest director — whose versatility apparently knows no bounds. Ditto her expertise in unbuttoning improbable subjects, like the 19th century literati, for example (A Bronte Burlesque), the Bard’s heroines (Shakespeare’s Sirens), the wives of Henry VIII (Tudor Queens), the women of the Wild West (Soiled Doves)…. The marriage of burlesque and theatre comes with a signature sense of humour when the Girls are sent in.

Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls peels back an assortment of superstitions, historical ghost stories — yes, the odd theatre ghost is involved — celebrity spiritualists, famous demons. The cast is led by Nikki Hulowski as the emcee, and the dancers include LeTabby Lexington (co-founder of Send in the Girls, House of Hush, and Burlesque Dueling Divas), Violette Le Coquette, Sharpay Diem, and Jezebel Sinclair.

Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls plays the Varscona tonight and Friday. Tickets: houseofhushburlesque.com.

WROL (without rule of law), Scona Alumni Theatre Co. Photo supplied.

•The Scona Alumni Theatre Co are having a good week. On Monday night they (and their collaborator Uniform Theatre) picked up three Sterlings, including best Fringe production, outstanding ensemble, and outstanding director for Linette J. Smith’s production of the odd-centre Canadian musical Ride The Cyclone.

Their production of a Michaela Jeffery’s dark coming-of-age comedy WROL (Without Rule of Law), intriguingly billed as “Judy Blume meets Rambo,” continues tonight and Friday at Scona (the high school, 10450 72 Ave. ). Edmonton audiences know Jeffery from The Listening Room, produced here by Cardiac Theatre in 2018, a futurist speculation starring a cell of teenage dissidents holed up in the desert scavenging the air waves for sounds of a world that no longer exists.

As director Smith describes, WROL is inspired by the tenor of the times: the characters are young teens who suspect that the fate of adolescent girls will not be a socio-cultural priority in the event of cataclysmic events. These youthful survivalists are preparing for the worst, and repair to the woods to investigate a mysterious disappearance. The cast has three Scona alumni and two current Scona theatre students.

Tickets: showpass.com