Category Archives: Previews

Two sparring playwrights in a vintage thriller: Deathtrap opens the Teatro Live! season

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The twisty comedy thriller that opens the Teatro season on the Varscona stage Friday is a classic, Ira Levin’s vintage 1978 Broadway hit Deathtrap.  But the production that launches the Teatro La Quindicina of old into … Continue reading

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Up close and chilling: a small-scale Sweeney Todd for our time, from the Plain Janes

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd/ He served a dark and vengeful god….” Starting Friday in a small and intriguing downtown space (CO*LAB), up close enough to smell blood, Plain Jane Theatre brings us a small-cast chamber … Continue reading

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Capturing a complicated holiday: a new Canadian musical by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, with songs by Hawksley Workman

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “It’s the first snow of the year/ Guess it happens once a year….” from Almost A Full Moon, Hawksley Workman “Christmas is a complicated holiday,” says playwright Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, pausing to consider the multiple facets of … Continue reading

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Love takes us backstage at a kids’ TV show: Die-Nasty lathers up for a new season of Monday night episodes

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Suds alert: We’re backstage at DNTV, a television studio where tensions are on red alert and the real drama happens in this age of streaming.  TV executives, actors both human and puppet, camera people, script writers … Continue reading

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‘Everyday horror’ mined for comedy: that’s Girl Brain, and they’re back

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s nothing like a pandemic to make a sketch comedy trio revel in being together again — in person, in a spanky theatre, rehearsing a new show, with a fog machine.  “Where are we?” says Ellie … Continue reading

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A cutting edge artist in her own right: Dora Maar: the wicked one, at Workshop West

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the solo play that launches the Workshop West Playwrights Theatre season Thursday you’ll meet a remarkable artist, a multi-media groundbreaker in the ‘30s and ‘40s. She was a cutting edge photographer with commercial cred and … Continue reading

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‘I would never do that.’ A different kind of horror in Squeamish at Northern Light Theatre

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A couple of weeks ago director Trevor Schmidt and an actor friend were driving back from a day’s excursion to Calgary where she had an audition. “It was getting dark, and we put on a recording … Continue reading

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Crazy or inspired: the what-if? of The Wrong People Have Money, premiering at Shadow Theatre

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Here’s a what-if? to stop you in your tracks and make you smile. What if you moved Greenland south to the middle of the Atlantic? Think of the benefits, for human habitation and commerce. In The … Continue reading

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Fending off the weasel en route to the stage: Weasel, noun, verb, and now Beth Graham play, premiering at Studio Theatre

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Beth Graham play that premieres Thursday on the Timms stage takes us into the heart of a mysterious world that is collaborative but hierarchical, creative but rule-bound, populated by high-octane people pretending to be someone … Continue reading

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The soccer field and the planet of teenage girls: The Wolves at the Citadel, a preview

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Wolves, opening the Citadel’s Highwire Series Thursday, does something no production has ever done at the big brick-and-glass playhouse downtown. It turns the Rice, the smallest of the Citadel’s theatres, into an indoor soccer field, … Continue reading

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