Category Archives: Reviews

Lungfuls of anxiety: Lungs at Shadow Theatre. A review

Posted on March 22, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Times being what they are, are you still “good people” if you decide to become parents? To bring another being into a world that’s already over-crammed with beings? A kid leaves a carbon footprint that’s bigger … Continue reading →

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Improvised Star Wars on the planet YEG, at the Grindstone

Posted on March 20, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Spring seat sale: I visited the planet YEG last night, a gritty post-apocalyptic landscape (and cantina) “far from everything that’s really happening.” Kanuck, cantina proprietor and aspirational Bounty Hunter in training, had evidently screwed up his … Continue reading →

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Small Mouth Sounds: the human comedy gets the silent treatment at the Roxy. A review

Posted on March 15, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There aren’t many words in it, but Small Mouth Sounds isn’t what you’d call quiet. The silent treatment is loud in the ingenious, funny, and mysteriously affecting play that the indie company Wild Side has brought … Continue reading →

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Poly Queer Love Ballad at SkirtsAfire: negotiating romance in a complicated world

Posted on March 14, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Last night at SkirtsAfire, I caught a charming and  intricate new two-hander musical that explores, in an original way, how to tell a contemporary, perpetually-in-progress love story. The eighth and (at 10 days) biggest-ever edition of … Continue reading →

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On the edge of the world: Come From Away. A review.

Posted on March 13, 2019 by

Becky Gulsvig and Emily Watson (front) in Come From Away. Photo by Matthew Murphy. By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Welcome to the Rock. “You are here, at the start of a moment, on the edge of the world,” sings the ensemble … Continue reading →

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“You have to put it right!” Matilda the Musical, at the Citadel. A review.

Posted on February 22, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Wicked, I tell you. Wicked fun, that is, the smart, joyful musical that’s currently promoting anti-authoritarian resistance, empowerment, and self-determination  — for children! — from the Citadel’s Shoctor stage. Based on Roald Dahl’s delightfully dark 1988 … Continue reading →

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The road to Mesa: a buddy pic with a difference. A review.

Posted on February 22, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Funny how the concept “road trip” conjures two sets of images, almost entirely contradictory. One is fuelled by sheer romance, the cinematic sweep of conquering vastness in a first-hand way: the questing spirit with car keys, … Continue reading →

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Élise contre l’extinction totale: a new L’UniThéâtre show for and about kids – and the planet – hits the road

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Anxiety about climate change and the fate of the earth isn’t the exclusive domain of adults. And “save the planet” isn’t vaguely theoretical, or metaphorical, or political: 16,306 species of animals are currently at risk of … Continue reading →

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The tricky question of belief: We Are Not Alone at Theatre Network. A review

Posted on February 15, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “What am I doing here?” asks Damien Atkins more than once in the course of his smart, sly, funny solo show We Are Not Alone. Its declared subject is one that raises either your hopes or … Continue reading →

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Songs My Mother Never Sung Me: a coming-of-age deaf/hearing chamber opera at Chinook

Posted on February 14, 2019 by

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “This is the story of how my mom helped me find my voice,” says the narrator (the excellent Kieran Martin Murphy) in Songs My Mother Never Sung Me, a touching, and ingenious, new bilingual chamber opera” … Continue reading →

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