Category Archives: Reviews

‘Staying together is the happy ending’: The Ballad of Johnny and June at the Citadel, a review

Posted on November 15, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What happens to a happy ending “when it comes in the middle”? The’s what John Carter Cash, the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter, wonders as he speculates onstage about his lineage and his … Continue reading →

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“I have become God”: Trevor Schmidt’s thriller Monstress premieres at Northern Light, a review

Posted on November 9, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca You enter the Studio Theatre through fog, and discover you’re in a mysterious chamber, glowing with jewelled colours and overhung with dozens of scissors, blades pointing down at us. The centrepiece, a slab that might be … Continue reading →

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In a staccato barrage of scenes, a star is born: The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow at Shadow Theatre, a review

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the opening moments of Neil Grahn’s The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow, to the strains of Rule Britannia, a top soldier is getting a military medal from the Prince of Wales. Seconds later, as Francis … Continue reading →

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Heartbreaking and funny, Stars On Her Shoulders premieres at Workshop West. A review.

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Every once in a while you find yourself in the theatre fully absorbed in a world that’s both distant and utterly close at hand. And you laugh through tears. It happened for me at Workshop West … Continue reading →

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Lethal power games as performance art: The Maids introduces a new indie theatre

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s something exactly right about entering the theatre through an unmarked door, down the stairs and into a space that invites reinvention and expands before your very eyes. It’s a world ready and waiting for actors … Continue reading →

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Don’t look now, but who’s that behind you? The Woman in Black, at Teatro Live! A review.

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Have sympathy for your audience!” roars The Actor (Geoffrey Simon Brown) emphatically at the start of The Woman In Black, the hit thriller that launches the Teatro Live! season at the Varscona. “Draw on your emotions … Continue reading →

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The existentialists from Ummo are back: Mump and Smoot in Exit, at Theatre Network. A review.

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Mump and Smoot arrive, as always, from a mysterious place, through the crowd — inhabitants of another mysterious place, the theatre (that’s us!). And, as always, they’re mid-adventure, mid-conversation, en route to the stage. It’s dark; … Continue reading →

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Illusion and delusion: A Streetcar Named Desire at the Citadel. A review

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca One of American theatre’s greatest plays about illusion and delusion — and the power and limitations of both — is the season-opener at the Citadel. And in Daryl Cloran’s beautifully acted production of A Streetcar Named … Continue reading →

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Nashville Music City: the 50th anniversary season opener at the Mayfield does its storytelling in music. A review

Posted on September 8, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Nashville: Music City, which launches the 50th anniversary season at the Mayfield, begins and ends with Will the Circle Be Unbroken. It’s a thought that counts in any half-century birthday celebration in the world of theatre. … Continue reading →

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Die-Nasty, the meta-Fringe fringified edition. A report/ review sort of thing from 12thnight

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

Die-Nasty! Edmonton’s Live Improvised Soap Opera (Stage 11, Varscona Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca I finally dropped in last night on Die-Nasty, the ultra-meta super-fringified Fringe edition of Edmonton’s weekly improvised soap, a venerable must-see Edmonton comedy institution. It’s set … Continue reading →

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