Category Archives: Reviews

Is a home sweet home too much to ask? The hilarity of Rat Academy 2 – Gnaw and Order, a 12thnight Fringe review

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Rat Academy 2 – Gnaw and Order (Stage 11, Varscona Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The last time we saw them, the last two rats in Alberta, Fingers (Dayna Lea Hoffmann) and Shrimp (Katie Yoner), were in a back alley, … Continue reading →

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In ‘the boneyard of dreams’, high on pixie dust: The Peter Pan Cometh, a Fringe review

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

The Peter Pan Cometh (Stage 4, Fine Arts Walterdale Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It seems to be the particular, and way-off-centre, genius of Minnesota’s Clevername Theatre to re-imagine dark and weighty American theatre hits with characters from childhood classics. … Continue reading →

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The ticking explosive within! Bomb, a Fringe review

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

Bomb (Stage 4, MacEwan Fine Arts Walterdale Theatre) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s a visceral absurdity about this clever, very dark multi-loaded stinger of a comedy that Pyretic Productions (well-named for its inflammatory proclivities), brings to the Fringe. And it’s … Continue reading →

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The plight of the single, in a couples world: the nutty hilarity of The Lost Sock Rescue Society, a Fringe review

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

The Lost Sock Rescue Society (Stage 28, Roots on Whyte) By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In this nutty and inspired latest from the physical comedy and clown company Small Matters Productions (For Science!, The Spinsters), we’re at a volunteer recruitment session … Continue reading →

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Lifting the veil between the living and the dead: Lucky Charm, a little review of a very cool show

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca I’m coming very late to this (a week away in the east is to blame, more about this later). But I went a séance Friday night. It was in an unexpected place, a bungalow on a … Continue reading →

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A vintage ’60s comedy done up deluxe(ly) at Teatro: The Odd Couple, a review

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The sound of an audience laughing out loud is something to be cherished — especially if it’s live, and you’re there among the people. One of the classics of old-school American comedy returns, in style, to the stage … Continue reading →

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In the pink: fizzy and fun Legally Blonde at the Citadel, a review

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Omigod you guys…. This doom-laden summer, the peppy pink Broadway musical singing and dancing across candy-coloured frames on the Citadel mainstage is your invitation to, like, get happier. Legally Blonde, which started out as a novel … Continue reading →

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Fun at camp: Freewill goes for the bold strokes in As You Like It. A review

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The first hint that Freewill Shakespeare’s As You Like It will go for the bold strokes is that Orlando (the magnetic Braydon Dowler-Coltman), in ball cap and sunglasses, roars up to the stage, to an overture … Continue reading →

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Rediscovering the self you’ve lost (with sun and sea): Shirley Valentine at the Mayfield, a review

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca At the Mayfield, you have a chance to see a vintage show get a new lease on life — just like its heroine.  Shirley Valentine, a 1986 solo play by the Liverpool playwright Willy Russell, is … Continue reading →

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The sound of Silence: a new opera at NUOVA Vocal Arts, a review

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Silence. Now there’s a puckish name for an opera. With Silence, NUOVA Vocal Arts has taken in hand an expansive, richly imagined 1999 play by the English playwright/screenwriter Moira Buffini. This new addition to the opera … Continue reading →

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