Category Archives: Previews
That masked man is back: a new Phantom of the Opera sings the music of the night
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained….” With this opening gambit, and signature organ arpeggio, a 1911 beauty-and-the-beast potboiler by an obscure Parisian hack/bon … Continue reading
Getting away with murder? Stewart Lemoine’s new mystery-comedy I Heard About Your Murder premieres at Teatro
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In Stewart Lemoine’s new murder mystery thriller comedy — a tricky theatrical category with precious few representatives — you’ll meet a married couple of Canuck urbanites with an idyllic rural retreat. Little do Howard and Dodie … Continue reading
Posted in Previews
Tagged 12thnight.ca, Edmonton theatre, murder mystery comedies, Stewart Lemoine, Teatro La Quindicina, Varscona Theatre
A festive spirit prevails in E-Town tonight: 2 festivals and a screwball comedy set to open
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” And then let up later, for heaven’s sake! It’s opening night this very evening for not one but two of Edmonton’s summer arts festivals. AND Teatro La Quindicina’s new screwball … Continue reading
Losing yourself at Found, the festival of art in unexpected places
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Unexpected things happen when you take theatre out of theatres. And we have a festival for that. The Found Festival returns Thursday to Old Strathcona for a sixth annual weekend of strange and surprising encounters, up … Continue reading
Once more unto the park dear friends: the 29th Freewill Shakespeare Festival draws nigh
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The love of summer Shakespeare runs deep in this town. One morning last week, the guest director at this year’s 29th annual Freewill Shakespeare Festival arrived for rehearsal at the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park. … Continue reading
For the love of the screwball: Going, Going, Gone! by comedy star Jana O’Connor at Teatro La Quindicina
By Liz Nicholls@12thnight.ca The hero of Going, Going, Gone! Jana O’Connor’s new 30s-style screwball comedy, is an antiques dealer: “shy, uptight, uncommitted, afraid to make a wrong move in life” as the amused playwright describes him. Everything, in short, that … Continue reading
Prying opera out of its standard choices: Opera Nuova’s 2017 festival
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The performance venue is unusual. The stagecraft is unusual. And there’s this: I think we can safely call the Opera Nuova production of Eugene Onegin (opening Thursday at the west end Oasis Centre) a moving experience. … Continue reading
Posted in Previews
Tagged 12thnight.ca, Carousel, Cunning Little Vixen, Edmonton opera, Edmonton theatre, Eugene Onegin, Opera Nuova, Rodgers and Hammerstein
June is bustin’ out all over (two Carousels spin onto the stage this month)
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It was never an easy musical — to cast, to act, to sing, to dance, to stage. And its dauntingly dark source, a 1909 play by the Hungarian Ferenc Molnár (Liliom), wasn’t exactly a natural for … Continue reading
Márquez meets Buster Keaton in Speechless, at Improvaganza
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Even by the globe-trotting, frontier-busting standards of the international improv comedy world, Speechless is an unlikely creation. Two acrobatic circus-trained improvisers from Bogotá, Colombia and a female DJ from Winnipeg? Come on, the odds-against factor doesn’t … Continue reading
The fine art of the spontaneous: Improvaganza invites the world
By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca True fact about the big wide world of improv comedy: it’s smaller than you think. It’s the eve of an international comedy festival that will demonstrate this, in ways you didn’t see coming. Rapid … Continue reading
