Category Archives: Reviews

The Ladies Foursome: the short game goes long. A review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Hitting a tiny ball with a skinny stick? A long long way into the distance into a hole you can’t even see?  To the non-golfer especially, the whole point of that particularly maddening game — alluded … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Ladies Foursome: the short game goes long. A review

When you meet a grizzly…. Matthew MacKenzie’s Bears

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If you run into a grizzly, keep the following in mind: They have an aversion to authority. They never back down. And there’s no use playing dead. “There’s no such thing as neutral in the bear … Continue reading

Posted in Features, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on When you meet a grizzly…. Matthew MacKenzie’s Bears

Remembering dad: Empire of the Son is an artful memoir of a tempestuous father-son relationship. A review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “For a long time I did not like my father,” says the puckish, elegantly moustached figure before us in Empire of the Son. Like? Hmmm.… Who among us hasn’t felt the disconcerting ripple of a thought … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Remembering dad: Empire of the Son is an artful memoir of a tempestuous father-son relationship. A review

Where did the time go? Nighty-night at the Slumberland Motel: a review of Collin Doyle’s comedy, premiering at Shadow Theatre

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What is a salesman but a teller of stories and a purveyor of dreams? Willie Loman knew it. And so does Edward, the more optimistic half of the pair of travelling vacuum cleaner salesmen who find … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Where did the time go? Nighty-night at the Slumberland Motel: a review of Collin Doyle’s comedy, premiering at Shadow Theatre

What light through yonder window breaks? Shakespeare’s R & J is back, a 12thnight review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Directors with concept envy have always been hot to get their mitts on Romeo and Juliet. And you can see why. The defiance, the crazy courage, the valiance of hot-blooded young lovers up against generational hostilities … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What light through yonder window breaks? Shakespeare’s R & J is back, a 12thnight review

The sounds of revolution: The Listening Room, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If there ever was a piece of theatre that owed star billing to the sound designer, it’s Cardiac Theatre’s premiere production of The Listening Room, by Calgary-based Michaela Jefferey. Everything about the premise depends on sound: … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The sounds of revolution: The Listening Room, a review

“Drink harder, dance longer,” fall in love: the hot-blooded rock musical Onegin, a 12thnight review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In the opening number of Onegin, a spirited ensemble assembles onstage and offers up the quintessential theatre invocation. “Our dear father up in heaven,” they sing, vodka in hand and eyes cast towards a theatrical firmament … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Drink harder, dance longer,” fall in love: the hot-blooded rock musical Onegin, a 12thnight review

In an uncertain world, The Humans takes us home for Thanksgiving dinner: a review of the Citadel/ Canadian Stage production

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “I wish you had more of a view,” says a mother to her irritated younger daughter in The Humans, surveying the alley from the sole window of a run-down duplex in lower Manhattan. Later in Stephen … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on In an uncertain world, The Humans takes us home for Thanksgiving dinner: a review of the Citadel/ Canadian Stage production

12thnight goes to Twelfth Night: a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Wonder and confusion, sadness and joy, thread their way through a comedy that’s always catching you a little off-guard, like the post-Christmas (hangover) season of the year itself. So in a way, the built-in contradictions of … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on 12thnight goes to Twelfth Night: a review

“The hottest show in town”: the unmissable Burning Bluebeard brings its strange magic back for the holidays

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s playful, it’s dark, it’s magical. Dave Horak’s production of Burning Bluebeard is back on the Roxy stage. And what a strange and wonderful Christmas show it is. You won’t see anything like it anywhere. I … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “The hottest show in town”: the unmissable Burning Bluebeard brings its strange magic back for the holidays