Category Archives: Reviews

A strange fairy tale, rescued magically by Time from tragedy: The Winter’s Tale in the park

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There is a strange magic about a play where brute tragedy gives way to pastoral comedy, realism mixes it up with romance, and dramatic scenes abut presentational vaudeville. The Winter’s Tale has the optical weirdness of … Continue reading →

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Sleuth: a vintage thriller at the Mayfield. A review.

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s a tricky business to give a theatre audience a spine-tingle of suspense, clenches of tension, periodic jolts of surprise, an invitation to exercise their own puzzle-decoding skills — ah, and laughter. That’s the fun of … Continue reading →

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Boys will be boys: taking the mickey out of male bonding in Two Gents, a bitter comedy in the park

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A passing squirrel, who turned his back to the stage, was not convinced. And the wind whispering through the poplars sounded downright skeptical this weekend in the park when a lovestruck young man tore himself away … Continue reading →

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Strangers till they’re not: one last chance to see A Likely Story at Teatro

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “You are a stranger though,” says a character, musing on whether to lay out her life conundrum to someone she’s just met in an unspecified place that turns out to be … a train station. “Ah, … Continue reading →

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The uneasy geometry of the love triangle: Pinter’s Betrayal. A review

Posted on May 25, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “I think I thought you knew,” says a man to his oldest friend in one of In one of the most quietly unnerving scenes you’re ever likely to see onstage. In Betrayal, Harold Pinter’s infinitely clever … Continue reading →

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A kickstart for Chekhovian ennui: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Shadow. A review.

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Oh let’s not talk. I’ll keep my sadness to myself,” says a mopey sister to a melancholy brother near the start of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen. As … Continue reading →

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Have you met our new friend? thoughts on Nassim at the Citadel

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There are many things I can’t tell you about Nassim (tempting though it is). (a) It just wouldn’t be fair. The show created by the Iranian playwright artist Nassim Soleimanpour, who travels the world with it, … Continue reading →

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Romance into tragedy: the dark, violent, original new hearing-deaf Tempest at the Citadel. A review.

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It never stops raining in the version of The Tempest that’s now lashing and splashing and skidding across the Citadel mainstage. As the Fool in Twelfth Night sings (borrowed by this wettest of Tempests for the … Continue reading →

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“Congratulations, Your Majesty!” The Empress and the Prime Minister at Theatre Network. A review

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In a week when inclusivity, tolerance, equality took a major body blow in the Alberta election, it was particularly moving — almost uncanny, really — to see The Empress and the Prime Minister at Theatre Network. … Continue reading →

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Sanctifunkadelic: Sister Act at the Mayfield. A review

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

  By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Raise the stakes! Raise the game! Raise your voice,” sing the nuns of Sister Act, newly kitted out as a showbiz soul ensemble by the latest recruit to the Sisterhood. “Feel the flow, dig the … Continue reading →

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