Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

Mighty oaks from tiny acorns…. Concrete’s Sprouts Festival returns

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls 12thnight.ca The sun is out. For 18 springs now, Concrete Theatre has been planting the Canadian theatre repertoire with new play seedlings from unusual sources — and then watering them for future seasons. The annual Sprouts Festival … Continue reading →

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A “puzzle box”: Broken Toys Theatre plays with Pinter’s Betrayal

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Just like old times,” says one character to another in the first scene of Betrayal. Funny how four simple words can evoke a whole world of memory and feeling. But then, this is Harold Pinter, the … Continue reading →

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Can’t fight this feeling: Rock of Ages is onstage at the Mayfield next season

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca As the life-coach sages commonly known as Journey have taught us, don’t stop believin’. The Mayfield’s Van Wilmott didn’t. For months, he’s been working on getting the rights for Rock of Ages, the unrepentantly good-time hair … Continue reading →

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Peter Oldring is funnier than you: star comedian joins Grindstone’s new comedy fest

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If you got incensed the day your ear was caught by an item on CBC Radio One that the province of Nova Scotia had cancelled Grade 4, you’re not alone. (And you already know something about … Continue reading →

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A kickstart for Chekhovian ennui: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Shadow. A review.

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Oh let’s not talk. I’ll keep my sadness to myself,” says a mopey sister to a melancholy brother near the start of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen. As … Continue reading →

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A Man Draws A Bird “because he wants to fly”: theatre, music, and Taiko drumming in a new Booming Tree show

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca As in so many life-changers, there was a moment when it all could have been different. And that was the moment — on one of those lingering Edmonton summer evenings in 2012 — that Greg Shimizu … Continue reading →

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Have you met our new friend? thoughts on Nassim at the Citadel

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There are many things I can’t tell you about Nassim (tempting though it is). (a) It just wouldn’t be fair. The show created by the Iranian playwright artist Nassim Soleimanpour, who travels the world with it, … Continue reading →

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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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