Category Archives: Reviews

Lend Me A Tenor: a classic ’30s door-slammer at the Mayfield. A review

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “These things happen, sir,” ventures Max, the rabbity assistant manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, trying to look on the bright side. In view of the premise of Ken Ludwig’s ingeniously engineered old-school 1986 farce … Continue reading →

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Lake of the Strangers: a magical mystery tour of a vast universe. A review

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Last night I had a haunting experience. It was the summer of 1973. And a young Indigenous boy and his little brother, on a fishing expedition together, were sitting in a pool of water up among … Continue reading →

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Miss Teen premieres at Shadow Theatre: game actors, tired script. A review

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In Miss Teen a strapped, single mother enters her awkward, bookish daughter in a local teen pageant. “It’ll be good practice … for life,” argues Coco brightly, undeterred by Margaret’s reaction, a mixture of appalled and … Continue reading →

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The Cardiac Shadow: where the soul goes under extreme duress. A review.

Posted on January 19, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the theatre, the dim light glints off the barbed wire that separates us from the stage. At the back we can just make out a kind of altar, draped in bulbs. It turns out to … Continue reading →

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Sweat, a blue-collar tragedy of work and race, at the Citadel: A review

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If you’ve ever wondered why disenfranchised workers seem to vote, time and again, against their own economic self-interest — and it’s a moment in history to be awestruck by that — the play currently onstage at … Continue reading →

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Minerva – Queen of the Handcuffs: the fascination of escape, an unlikely radical. A review

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The international stage repertoire has no shortage of shows about the entertainment world and its fractious backstage — where dreamers and achievers, stars and wannabes, artsy bright-idea types and antsy bottom-line producers, collide. Still, Minerva – … Continue reading →

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KaldrSaga: the secret lives of gods and heroes in Cardiac’s genial storytelling pub show. A review

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Tell me a story” (preferably “funny but dark”). And make it snappy. Hey, what are friends for? In KaldrSaga: A Queer Tavern Drama For A Midwinter’s Night, Harley Morison’s free-wheeling new pub show for Cardiac Theatre, … Continue reading →

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The Malachite Macbeth haunts a church: a review

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In this the mournful post-festive season, there is something more than a little unnerving about entering a vaulted dimly lit chamber, to the wail of a single violin. The shadows of a pale, spectral giant tree … Continue reading →

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Hanging our obsessions on the tannenbaum: Oh! Christmas Tree. A guest review by Todd Babiak

Posted on December 15, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Todd Babiak Those who love Christmas tend to have trouble empathizing with those who — for no solid religious or cultural reasons — don’t feel it. From Charlie Brown and The Grinch to Ebenezer Scrooge and the incontinent drunk … Continue reading →

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Keeping Christmas in our hearts: A Christmas Carol to lift your spirits at the Citadel. A review

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?” For 19 years, Edmonton theatre audiences have had their own special answer, hand-delivered from the stage live and in person. It’s come to … Continue reading →

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