Category Archives: Reviews

More about folly than love: A Midsummer Night’s Dream brings Freewill Shakespeare back to the park. A review

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Blow blow thou winter wind…”  oops, wrong play.  After two years of wandering the town in small-cast entertainments, the Freewill Shakespeare Festival is back on the big stage in Hawrelak Park. And on Tuesday’s blustery, unremittingly … Continue reading →

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Re:Construct, at RISER, is a celebration of self in trans-it. A review

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Welcome!” declare the beaming go-for-the-gusto duo who greet us in Re:Construct. “You are SO SO SO … valid.” Valid! Hurray! Unless, of course, we’re not. Ah, there’s the rub: All good! Relax! “Do whatever it takes!” … Continue reading →

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A comedy thriller with a Wagnerian reverb: Evelyn Strange at Teatro, a review

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A beautiful amnesiac in a trench coat finds herself in a grand tier box at the Met c. 1955, sitting through a performance of Wagner’s five-hour Siegfried. She needs time to think and, hey, The Ring … Continue reading →

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The one-way time portal into war: Alina, a review

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Trains, they’re like time portals,” says the title character of Alina, who steps into one at the outset. On a train you leave one world and you arrive in another.  The question the drives the gripping … Continue reading →

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Sexual assault in the world of Friend or Unfriend: Tell Us What Happened at Workshop West. A review.

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In Michelle Robb’s tense new play, premiering at Workshop West in Heather Inglis’s production, young characters slam up hard against complicated questions — at contradictory angles. But here’s the rub: they live in a world that … Continue reading →

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Revenge, cartoon-style: 9 to 5 the musical at the Citadel, a review

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Joy to the girls. The vintage revenge fantasy now charging around the office on the Citadel’s Maclab stage — propelled by Dolly Parton songs and a perennial point about exploitation of women in the work place … Continue reading →

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‘It’s no o’clock’: Bloomsday at Shadow Theatre, a review

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A rosy glow suffuses the Varscona stage (designer: Even Gilchrist):  it’s either dawn or dusk, nearly day or nearly night, in a Dublin that’s both real and literary. And the sound (designer: Dave Clarke) is a … Continue reading →

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‘Orchid, pause recording’: I Don’t Even Miss You, a Tiny Bear Jaws dance musical for a contactless world. A review.

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If you think that the last two years have kicked the crap out of satire, think what they’ve done to speculative fiction. Or existential crises. With I Don’t Even Miss You, premiering in RISER Edmonton’s 2022 … Continue reading →

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An inheritance in stories: ren & the wake, a new Catch the Keys musical. A review

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s a funny thing, don’t you find, the way memory works. How the past gets unearthed from its subterranean lair in detached moments, a snippet of melody, a smell, the sound of a laugh, a scribble … Continue reading →

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You can’t not discuss this one: As You Like It, A Radical Retelling is the first play at the New Roxy, a (very) short review

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Thus we may see … how the world wags.” — William Shakespeare, As You Like It, II, vii It’s bold. It’s ballsy, a genuinely provocative theatre experiment. And — here’s a 100 per cent guarantee — … Continue reading →

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