Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

Shocker: the outstanding Penny Ritco is leaving the Citadel

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The dramatic theatre news of the day comes from the Citadel: executive director Penny Ritco has announced she’s leaving the company after 13 years. One of the country’s most accomplished, astute, and respected theatre leaders, Ritco … Continue reading →

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Here’s a Chekhovian regret for you: Stupid Fucking Bird is gone

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Haven’t you ever watched yourself and got the vague feeling you’re a spectator in your own life instead of a participant? Or maybe a fictional character in something kind of meandering and plotless instead of something … Continue reading →

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The temptation of danger without the risk: Soliciting Temptation, a review

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Soliciting Temptation hands us a snapshot of a situation earmarked for our disapproval. Fretful middle-aged white guy in a grubby hotel room in a Third World city: He’s pacing, drinking whiskey, getting sweaty, fiddling with the … Continue reading →

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Crazy For You: sweet and embraceable at the Citadel

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “They kept me late at the bank but I’ve got my tap shoes on!” cries Bobby Child, a young man with a distinct career malfunction, at the start of Crazy For You. Words to live by, … Continue reading →

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Who could ask for anything more? Crazy for You at the Citadel

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Nice work if you can get it/ And you can get it if you try….” In Crazy For You, the deluxe ‘30s musical comedy that was actually, amazingly, written in the 1990s, a stagestruck Manhattan rich … Continue reading →

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Mum’s the word at SkirtsAfire, the “herArts Festival”

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Everybody you know has one, alive or pushing up daisies, possibly on the phone asking why you don’t call or wear yellow more often. I refer of course to moms.  And the sheer cosmic strangeness of … Continue reading →

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Stupid Fucking Bird: Does it give Chekhov wings or the raspberry? Let’s ask Dave Horak

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The people of The Seagull, Anton Chekhov’s first great masterpiece, are chafing with confusion, disappointment, unrequited desire, time, ego. The people of Stupid Fucking Bird, an irreverent modern remix by American playwright Aaron Posner, are like that … Continue reading →

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The consolations of the Big Apple

Posted on February 19, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The impending arrival of Rachel Chavkin and her creative team at the Citadel next season, to prepare a Broadway version of the original musical Hadestown is exciting news. Judging by her dazzling production of Natasha, Pierre, … Continue reading →

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The song and dance of love: The Plain Janes’ Ah, Romance! reviewed

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “It’s a grand night for singing/ The stars are bright above. / The earth is a-glow/ And to add to the show, I think I am falling in love! — Rodgers and Hammerstein, State Fair Barring … Continue reading →

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Bello is about accepting outsiders: a new Vern Thiessen for kids

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca For 16 of its 27 years Concrete Theatre has been inviting people of every ethnic and cultural stripe, every calling, career or colour, to plant a Sprout. All they need, these playwrights or poets or painters, … Continue reading →

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