Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

A change in artistic leadership at Shadow Theatre: the multi-talented Lana Michelle Hughes will be the new artistic director

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca After 35 years, a torch is being passed at Shadow Theatre. At the end of the 2025-2026 season, John Hudson, a co-founder of the company and its artistic director from the start, is retiring. Stepping into … Continue reading →

Posted in News/Views | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on A change in artistic leadership at Shadow Theatre: the multi-talented Lana Michelle Hughes will be the new artistic director

Boy, tiger, sea journey … and the magic of puppets. Life of Pi at the Citadel: meet puppet designer/creator Brendan James Boyd

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It would seem to define the impossible: the page-to-live stage adventure of Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s 2001 Booker Prize-winning novel. A story about an Indian teenager lost at sea for 227 days? Afloat on a … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Boy, tiger, sea journey … and the magic of puppets. Life of Pi at the Citadel: meet puppet designer/creator Brendan James Boyd

Nostalgia in sight and sound: The Simon & Garfunkel Story opens the Mayfield season, a review

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What is conjured for us at the (newly renovated) Mayfield showroom, in The Simon & Garfunkel Story, is the signature harmonious blend of the last century’s most celebrated duo. There is something witty about starting a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Nostalgia in sight and sound: The Simon & Garfunkel Story opens the Mayfield season, a review

The curtain comes down on Fringe Full of Stars, with starshine stats and records broken

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca After 11 days and nights, Fringe Full of Stars, the 44th annual edition of our giant summer theatre festival, is poised to exit the stage (actually, its 40 stages) Sunday night. And by Sunday morning delighted … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, News/Views | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The curtain comes down on Fringe Full of Stars, with starshine stats and records broken

Focus, people! The Fringe rolls into its last weekend, already a record-busting edition

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Fringe Full of Stars goes into its final weekend with shiny news to share. As of Friday noon, the 11-day and night) 44th annual edition of our big 223-show summer theatre bash is already a record-buster. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, News/Views | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Focus, people! The Fringe rolls into its last weekend, already a record-busting edition

Wait, there’s more…. Fringe holdovers next week

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Did it just dawn on you that Fringe Full of Stars ends Sunday night? And your big plans to navigate your way to the Fringe and its 223-show galaxy of possibilities just haven’t materialized so far? … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, News/Views | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Wait, there’s more…. Fringe holdovers next week

Look! Look! I spotted a pair of rare white-topped cuckoos. The fun and charm of The Birds, a Fringe review

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

The Birds (Stage 1, ATB Westbury Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “The wonders of the avian world” can be yours, my friends, via this “flock-umentary,” which trains the bird-watcher opera glasses on the the birth, adolescence, courtship, mating, parenting rituals … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, Reviews | Comments Off on Look! Look! I spotted a pair of rare white-topped cuckoos. The fun and charm of The Birds, a Fringe review

‘Everybody has a right to their dreams’: Sondheim’s Assassins, a Fringe review

Posted on August 21, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Assassins (Stage 36, ArtsHub Ortona) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “All you have to do is move your little finger and you can change the world,” sings the disaffected actor John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. And he did just that in … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Everybody has a right to their dreams’: Sondheim’s Assassins, a Fringe review

In the beginning was … writer’s block. Genesis, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Genesis (Stage 2, The Next Act Backstage Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There are plenty of plays cavorting through the back catalogues of the repertoire (with ‘meta’ stickers on their backs) where wayward characters are searching for an author to … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on In the beginning was … writer’s block. Genesis, a Fringe review

A shocker from the Greeks: blistering three-actor A Kind of Electra, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

A Kind of Electra (Stage 4, MacEwan Fine Arts Walterdale Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca When we meet the title character (Caitlin Stasey) in this lacerating three-actor account of the Greek myth of Electra, she is a shocking sight, shrieking … Continue reading →

Posted in Fringe 2025, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on A shocker from the Greeks: blistering three-actor A Kind of Electra, a Fringe review