Category Archives: Reviews

Quality time with the older generation: the unforced charm of Banana Musik, a review

Posted on September 21, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The homey smell of cooking hangs over the unusually hospitable show, developed at the Found Festival, that’s currently running at the Backstage Theatre. There’s dinner and there’s theatre in Banana Musik, launching Common Ground Arts Society’s … Continue reading →

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Theatrical thrills in Life of Pi, launching the Citadel’s 60th anniversary season. A review

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A boy. A tiger. The vast Pacific. Onstage. How can it be? A sense of wonder — in both the fantastical story and the thrilling theatricality of its telling — is the currency of the Life … Continue reading →

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The hopes and dreams of a raccoon existentialist: The Shiniest Piece of Trailer Trash, a review

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Aww, this is the life! I get to be here, for free!” declares the resourceful, scrappy character we meet in The Shiniest Piece of Trailer Trash. In Meegan Sweet’s imaginative solo show, the staff choice at … Continue reading →

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Nostalgia in sight and sound: The Simon & Garfunkel Story opens the Mayfield season, a review

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What is conjured for us at the (newly renovated) Mayfield showroom, in The Simon & Garfunkel Story, is the signature harmonious blend of the last century’s most celebrated duo. There is something witty about starting a … Continue reading →

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Look! Look! I spotted a pair of rare white-topped cuckoos. The fun and charm of The Birds, a Fringe review

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

The Birds (Stage 1, ATB Westbury Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “The wonders of the avian world” can be yours, my friends, via this “flock-umentary,” which trains the bird-watcher opera glasses on the the birth, adolescence, courtship, mating, parenting rituals … Continue reading →

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‘Everybody has a right to their dreams’: Sondheim’s Assassins, a Fringe review

Posted on August 21, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Assassins (Stage 36, ArtsHub Ortona) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “All you have to do is move your little finger and you can change the world,” sings the disaffected actor John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. And he did just that in … Continue reading →

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In the beginning was … writer’s block. Genesis, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Genesis (Stage 2, The Next Act Backstage Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There are plenty of plays cavorting through the back catalogues of the repertoire (with ‘meta’ stickers on their backs) where wayward characters are searching for an author to … Continue reading →

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A shocker from the Greeks: blistering three-actor A Kind of Electra, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

A Kind of Electra (Stage 4, MacEwan Fine Arts Walterdale Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca When we meet the title character (Caitlin Stasey) in this lacerating three-actor account of the Greek myth of Electra, she is a shocking sight, shrieking … Continue reading →

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A strange new Trevor Schmidt play for Whizgiggling: Paloma & Joy, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Paloma & Joy (Stage 8, Gateway Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The double set of opening sequences, the best part of this very odd new Trevor Schmidt comedy/drama for Whizgiggling Productions, are a kind of performance art. They’re a graphic … Continue reading →

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‘A brief history of colonialism’ by bouffon clowns: strange, unsettling, fascinating Colonial Circus, a Fringe review

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Colonial Circus: History, Clown-Style (Stage 27, Sugar Swing Upstairs) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The two bouffon clowns of this strange, fascinating, and unsettling (feel free to use the term “fringe-y”) show, “a brief history of colonialism,” sure know how to … Continue reading →

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