Category Archives: Reviews

‘You felt like home right from the get-go’. KaldrSaga, Cardiac’s ‘new queer, old Norse cabaret’. A review

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s a very unusual storyteller’s cabaret happening in a handsome brick- and wood-lined room in the river valley. Norse mythology: where friends meet. And if the gods are overseeing the whole operation from their own spot … Continue reading →

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Making merry with murder: A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder at Grindstone, a review

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Murder most foul? Yes, we laughed and laughed. How can you not be tickled by an evening of inspired wickedness in the theatre where you find yourself charmed by a serial killer, and overcome with mirth … Continue reading →

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Backyard curtain time: Theatre Yes brings it home with The Doorstep Plays

Posted on May 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The ancient contract between The People and The Theatre gets an intriguing clause, and the personal touch, in the latest venture by the ever-adventurous Theatre Yes.  With The Doorstep Plays, they bring the theatre to you … Continue reading →

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Horseplay, an irresistible new play about a bond beyond the traces, at Workshop West. A review

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s a bright buoyant sparkle to Horseplay, the funny, dreamy, heart-breaker of a season-ender at Workshop West. It’s a new play, about things like friendship and ambition, success and sacrifice, by a young theatre artist whose … Continue reading →

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The self in a bind: the RISER New Works Festival opens with Calla Wright’s Binding

Posted on May 16, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca New this year the RISER New Works Festival began its weekend of performances and workshops last night with a work-in-progress production of a challenging and playful one-human many-puppet show. Destined for Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival in … Continue reading →

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A theatrical index to a beloved novel: Little Women at the Citadel, a review

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The March siblings, growing up in genteel poverty in Civil War America, might well be literature’s most famous sister act since Jane Austen’s Bennets. And ever since they stepped out from the pages of Louisa May … Continue reading →

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Family secrets and country air: Where You Are at Shadow, a review

Posted on May 3, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s no shortage of funny one-liners in Where You Are. And a lot of them happen in the opening scenes of the carefully constructed 2019 comedy by the Canadian playwright Kristen Da Silva. We meet two … Continue reading →

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“Is anyone out there?” En route to love, the long way round: Alphabet Line at Fringe Theatre. A review

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “My name is Duncan J Hayes. I live in Yonker on the Alphabet Line. Is anyone out there?” The recurring refrain in Alphabet Line is a call out into the wild blue yonder of the Saskatchewan … Continue reading →

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We’re all good people, right? Up the property ladder in Radiant Vermin, a review

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In a week when “housing crisis” and “starter home” got batted around like pingpong balls (in both our official languages) at the leaders’ debates, here’s a Faustian comedy that’s eerily in sync. It’s dark and smiley, … Continue reading →

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Four guys under a streetlamp: Jersey Boys at the Mayfield, a review

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca All jukebox musicals are not created equal. And there’s a notable example, currently running at the Mayfield, that rises above the others the way Frankie Valli’s legendary falsetto levitates off the stage and into your brain.  … Continue reading →

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