Category Archives: Fringe 2025

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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‘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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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A strange new Trevor Schmidt play for Whizgiggling: Paloma & Joy, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Paloma & Joy (Stage 8, Gateway Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The double set of opening sequences, the best part of this very odd new Trevor Schmidt comedy/drama for Whizgiggling Productions, are a kind of performance art. They’re a graphic … Continue reading →

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‘A brief history of colonialism’ by bouffon clowns: strange, unsettling, fascinating Colonial Circus, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Colonial Circus: History, Clown-Style (Stage 27, Sugar Swing Upstairs) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The two bouffon clowns of this strange, fascinating, and unsettling (feel free to use the term “fringe-y”) show, “a brief history of colonialism,” sure know how to … Continue reading →

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Couples therapy on Mars: red dirt / red storm, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

red dirt / red storm (Stage 8, Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The premise of this two-hander from the Los Angeles company Second Star on the Right is not without promise. It locates a warring couple, … Continue reading →

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