Kristin Johnston in Mob, Workshop West Playwrights Theatre. Photo by Dave DeGagné

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

More proof, as if you needed any, that Edmonton is a theatre town: A week of exciting possibilities for your nights out. A Quebec thriller. A musical about the struggle to write a musical about the struggle to writer a musical…. A comedy pastiche of a celebrated adventure, a new feature film by a deluxe improviser/writer, an art exhibition by a notable actor/playwright/director/filmmaker. And more.

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•The Workshop West Playwrights Theatre season opens Friday with a hit thriller from Quebec. The reverb of Mob (La Meute) is Hitchcock, especially Psycho (a B&B in the boondocks with mysteriously odd inhabitants). But in Catherine-Anne Toupin’s 2018 play, in translation and in the West for the first time, the ante is upped by the existence and sinister presence of the online nexus. Heather Inglis’s production stars Kristin Johnston, Graham Mothersill and Davina Stewart. We found out what not to ask in advance — we’re keen to not spoil your thriller excitement— by talking to the in-demand Johnston in this 12thnight PREVIEW. Tickets: workshopwest.org.

•The MacEwan University theatre arts season opens with a charmer of a self-referential backstage onstage 2004 musical about the creation of … itself. [title of show] chronicles the odds-against struggles of Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell to write and produce an original musical in the three weeks before the inaugural New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Named for the blank on the festival application form, it follows the fortunes of two young guys with aspirations (and day jobs) and two of their actress friends as they prepare this very musical, which had an Obie-winning Off-Broadway run, and ended up on Broadway in 2008. Genial, heartfelt, and likeable, it is, in effect, a love letter to the musical theatre and to the musical theatre-besotted (the MacEwan theatre arts program is full of young artists like that).

The MacEwan production runs Wednesday through Sunday in the Tim Ryan Theatre Lab. Tickets: tickets.macewan.ca or 7800-497-4470.

It’s your last chance this weekend to catch …

The Hooves Belonged To The Deer, In Arms Collective at Edmonton Fringe Theatre. Photo of Tarragon Theatre production by Cylla von Tiedemann

… a full stage production by an indie troupe,  of an startlingly far-reaching, epic, richly layered new play, Makram Ayache’s The Hooves Belonged To The Deer. I’ve seen a podcast version (in The Alberta Queer Calendar Project) and Buddies in Bad Times’ audio play, and wondered how on earth it might live onstage.  I’m coming late to this exciting prospect this final weekend of the run, held up by shoulder surgery. It’s play to discuss, and it’s at the Westbury Theatre in the Fringe Arts Barns through Saturday night. Tickets: fringetheatre.ca. Ayache’s own fascinating story is part of its inspiration; read 12thnight’s preview interview here.

Crescendo by Sandy Paddick, Shadow Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.

 … Crescendo, the season-opener at Shadow Theatre. Sandy Paddick’s musical is more like a musical collage than a play with music. It takes us into the world of choirs, and the needs, the traumas, the life setbacks, the hopes of people who join, so that they can sing together and somehow transcend their own solo voices. It’s onstage at the Varscona through Sunday. Tickets: shadowtheatre.org. Check out 12thnight’s preview interview with playwright Paddick here, and review here.

Karen Hines, Pochsy IV, Keep Frozen Productions at Theatre Network. Photo by Gary Mulcahey

… Pochsy IV, on the Theatre Network mainstage through Sunday, is the work of one of the country’s true originals, Karen Hines. She’a  bold, funny, witty satirist. And her creation Pochsy is a sort of tarnished pixie with a dark, glittering, apocalyptic vision of the world wrapped in capitalist catchphases, pop-culture truisms,  self-help pep talk clichés, market-driven mantras. There is nothing like it — an unmissable show, running through Sunday. The 12thnight review is here. And you can meet Hines, along with her director Michael Kennard of the horror clown duo Mump and Smoot, here. Tickets: theatrenetwork.ca.

… Musicians Gone Wild: Rock The Canyon, at the Mayfield, is a musical portrait designed to capture and celebrate a place (Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills), an epochal time (late 60s early 70s), and that California dreamin’ sound. A highly entertaining, music-rich evening out, through Sunday. Check out the 12thnight review here. Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca.

Continuing …

Tenaj Williams in Little Shop of Horrors, Citadel/Arts Club Theatre Company. Photo by Nanc Price

… at the Citadel,  Little Shop of Horrors, in a co-production with Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre starring the adorable Tenaj Williams as hapless florist’s assistant Seymour, and the burgeoning plant he inadvertently cultivates. Yup, Audrey II has a strong voice (like everyone else in the cast) and an insatiable appetite for human blood. See what musical theatre experts made of the ultra-cheesy Roger Corman horror film of 1960 when they turned it into this funny, clever 1982 sci-fi musical comedy. Running through Nov. 19. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.

… at Spotlight Cabaret, the comic subversives in residence there take on one of literature’s most famous travellers. Their season opener comedy Alison Wunderland (through Jan. 21) follows our heroine down the rabbit hole, with music from the 70s to now.

Larry Reese

•For the first time in more than 15 years Larry Reese is having an exhibition of his paintings. Worlds of Wonder opens this weekend at the Trinity Gallery at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Strathcona. Reese’s artist history is something of a mind-blower. His very crowded theatre and film resumé as an actor, director, filmmaker, teacher, mentor includes credits at every theatre in town and the Shaw Festival, and in major film releases like Brokeback Mountain and Unforgiven. He’s a co-founder of Red Deer College’s motion picture arts program. Most recently he received a best actor nomination at this year’s AMPIA Rosie Awards for his performance in the film rom-com Team Bride. And Reese has a musical pedigree too. This includes chops on the sitar (really!), a stint as resident musical director at the Citadel, and a U of A music degree in French horn and composition.

The opening reception for Reese’s new exhibition is Saturday at Holy Trinity, 1 to 5 p.m. Jan Randall provides live music. And there’s a reading by Janice MacDonald from her mystery novel The Eye of the Beholder.

Colin Mochrie and Amber Nash in How To Ruin The Holidays. Photo by Chelsea Patricia.

• Kevin Gillese, a star improviser and playwright we know from his Fringe shows and his time in Edmonton as artistic director of Rapid Fire Theatre, has made a holiday feature movie, an unusually personal comedy. How To Ruin The Holidays, starring Amber Nash, is directed by Gillese’s Scratch! partner Arlen Konapaki, now L.A.-based.  The first of two Metro Cinema screenings happens Monday (7 p.m.); the second is Nov. 25 (3:30).  More about this soon from 12thnight. Stay tuned.