Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

The quest to be a warrior: an Indigenous story gets a powerful telling in Redpatch. A review.

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the striking opening moments of Redpatch a masked prophet in a pyramid of light asks “what is life?” and then vanishes into mist. It’s a question with legs (and vast reservoirs of imaginative and aerobic … Continue reading →

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Song-and-dance con men, two World War I plays, and more… a theatre weekend in E-town

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A con game (with song and dance) is one of your options for a night out at live theatre this weekend. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a larky musical by the team of David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, … Continue reading →

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I sing of Pretenderos, land of plot complications. The return of Die-Nasty to a lawless land

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Trolls? You want trolls? How about a dragon? “I’ll make it happen,” says a portentous rumbling voice from the dark. “This is a world with No Rules.” Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.  Welcome to … Continue reading →

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From Nootka Sound to Vimy Ridge: Redpatch, an Indigenous soldier’s tale comes to the Citadel

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca You could do a lot of exhuming in the archives, in novels, diaries, war poetry, and never discover this striking and mysterious fact: more than four thousand Indigenous Canadians signed up to fight in the First … Continue reading →

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Theatre takes to the trenches: Neil Grahn’s The Comedy Company. A review

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “And make it funny!” barks the Major at the soldier.    And so it starts, the remarkable true Canadian story that comes to life in Neil Grahn’s The Comedy Company. The new play by a writer … Continue reading →

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Laughter in the face of death: Neil Grahn’s The Comedy Company launches the Shadow season

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Neil Grahn and comedy. He’s sidled, plunged, back-flipped into it. He’s written it and improvised it, acted it, produced it, directed it, studied it at a distance and up close, for stage for film for TV. … Continue reading →

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Chills and thrills in a theatre town: stake out a stage near you

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Uncanny, isn’t it?, how often the words “ordinary nice polite guy-next-door” show up in reports of homicidal rampages? Researcher Eugene Crowley, the noted “mind-hunter,” is in town this week to give a public lecture on the … Continue reading →

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Defy gravity at your peril: Dead Centre Of Town XI at Fort Edmonton

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The principle of “what goes up must come down” as applied to air travel isn’t an entirely comforting thought. Defying gravity might have been a blast for Peter Pan but, trust me, it doesn’t always work … Continue reading →

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In the land of Pretenderos, a plot of epic proportions: Die-Nasty returns with a Lord of Thrones season

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Epic battles, dynastic conflicts and alliances, murderous intrigues, lethal challenges, fierce creatures (in striking character roles), aspirational heroes, ancient grievances, copious references to The Throne, a plot that no one person can fully understand…. Yes, smells … Continue reading →

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“Thicker than water and stronger than bone”: twin performances in Blood: A Scientific Romance at The Maggie Tree. A review.

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca At the beating heart of Meg Braem’s intricate Blood: A Scientific Romance are twin sisters whose mysterious bond is an elixir of life. Beyond empathy, beyond heredity, beyond biology, Angelique and Poubelle seem to be joined at … Continue reading →

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