Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

When you meet a grizzly…. Matthew MacKenzie’s Bears

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If you run into a grizzly, keep the following in mind: They have an aversion to authority. They never back down. And there’s no use playing dead. “There’s no such thing as neutral in the bear … Continue reading →

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Remembering dad: Empire of the Son is an artful memoir of a tempestuous father-son relationship. A review

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “For a long time I did not like my father,” says the puckish, elegantly moustached figure before us in Empire of the Son. Like? Hmmm.… Who among us hasn’t felt the disconcerting ripple of a thought … Continue reading →

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A wealth of choices on Edmonton stages this weekend (the groundhog needs to get out more)

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The existentialists were right. Our real problem, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t hypothermia. It’s choice. There’s a wealth of possibilities on Edmonton stages: consider the weekend possibilities.  •“Now give three cheers and one cheer more for the … Continue reading →

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Her Mark: life on The Rock is harsh, beautiful, and poetic

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Every word I have spoken the wind has taken, as it will take me. As it will take my grandchildren’s children, their heads full of fragments and my face not among those.” In his poem Her … Continue reading →

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Nature at risk: Bears, Matthew MacKenzie’s “dark comedy about pipelines” is back to provoke

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Three years ago Edmonton audiences found themselves in the presence of the season’s (make that the decade’s) only “multi-disciplinary comedy about the Northern Gateway Pipeline.” And they watched, spellbound, as a man on a flight through … Continue reading →

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The complex lives of fathers and sons: Empire of the Son comes to the Citadel Club

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the hit touring show that arrives Thursday in the Citadel Club, a son tells the story of a remote, unapproachable father: his own.  Countries get adopted, and left behind; continents get crossed — and so, … Continue reading →

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Where did the time go? Nighty-night at the Slumberland Motel: a review of Collin Doyle’s comedy, premiering at Shadow Theatre

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What is a salesman but a teller of stories and a purveyor of dreams? Willie Loman knew it. And so does Edward, the more optimistic half of the pair of travelling vacuum cleaner salesmen who find … Continue reading →

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What light through yonder window breaks? Shakespeare’s R & J is back, a 12thnight review

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Directors with concept envy have always been hot to get their mitts on Romeo and Juliet. And you can see why. The defiance, the crazy courage, the valiance of hot-blooded young lovers up against generational hostilities … Continue reading →

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The sounds of revolution: The Listening Room, a review

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If there ever was a piece of theatre that owed star billing to the sound designer, it’s Cardiac Theatre’s premiere production of The Listening Room, by Calgary-based Michaela Jefferey. Everything about the premise depends on sound: … Continue reading →

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“Drink harder, dance longer,” fall in love: the hot-blooded rock musical Onegin, a 12thnight review

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the opening number of Onegin, a spirited ensemble assembles onstage and offers up the quintessential theatre invocation. “Our dear father up in heaven,” they sing, vodka in hand and eyes cast towards a theatrical firmament … Continue reading →

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