Tag Archives: Freewill Shakespeare Festival

On the street where she lived, stories from childhood: Morningside Road, a new Celtic musical, premieres at Shadow

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The through-line of Mhairi Berg’s childhood was stories — fascinating, first-hand stories told to her by her Scottish grandmother about growing up in Edinburgh. “I didn’t realize how important they were to me,” says Berg, “But … 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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Troy O’Donnell has a history with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, and this year’s As You Like It

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The play that opens Friday in a park overlooking the river valley is all about finding yourself on an excursion to the great outdoors, “the green world.” No wonder the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, which has gone … Continue reading →

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Once more unto the park in 2026? Freewill Shakespeare Festival launches a ‘save the fest’ campaign

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca For 35 summers the Freewill Shakespeare Festival has been banishing the winters of our discontent (not to mention, bringing on joy and mirth, and generally inspiring a holiday humour). Summer Shakespeare à la Freewill is a … Continue reading →

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We’ve lost a remarkable theatre artist: a tribute to the late great John Wright

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca With the passing of John Wright last weekend, far too soon at 74, the Canadian theatre and its audiences have lost not only a superb artist and mentor but an engaging, authentic, real-life character with a … Continue reading →

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‘A wonder of an actor’: with the death of Julien Arnold, we’ve lost one of our best, and most loved, theatre artists

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

In honour of the late Julien Arnold, I’m re-posting my 12thnight tribute of Nov. 25.  Thursday night at the Citadel (7:30 p.m. in the Maclab Theatre) we celebrate the life of this exceptional theatre artist. If you can’t make it … Continue reading →

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‘A wonder of an actor’: in Julien Arnold, we’ve lost one of our finest, and most loved, theatre artists

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca We — the ‘we’ across the country — woke up this morning to the most heartbreaking and tragic theatre news. The untimely passing of Julien Arnold at 58, felled by a heart attack at the Citadel … Continue reading →

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Classic comedy: a summertime weekend in Edmonton theatre

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Hey, Edmonton, look what’s waiting for you onstage this weekend. Something about summer inspires our theatre artists to tangle with the classics, reimagine them, put them in new shapes: A classic playwright (you guessed, Shakespeare), in … Continue reading →

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Storytelling in the theatre: a long weekend on Edmonton stages

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A long weekend in Edmonton: four plays, four stories that demonstrate, in four very different ways, the possibilities of storytelling on a stage, in a theatre. •Michel(le), the season finale at L’UniThéâtre, from Vancouver’s Théâtre La … Continue reading →

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‘Rough magic’ for the great outdoors: Freewill Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a review

Posted on June 21, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca On a perfectly calm summer evening under an azure sky, a tiny ship, The Lady Capulet, careens among us, capsizing its way toward the stage, flinging drunken party people here and there, topsy turvy. It’s a … Continue reading →

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