Tag Archives: Varscona Theatre

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 →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on A kickstart for Chekhovian ennui: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Shadow. A review.

The Shadow knows: putting the comedy back into Chekhov, and the new season

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “If everyone took anti-depressants, Chekhov would have had nothing to write about….” The playwright himself called it “Chekhov in a blender.” But Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, by the raucous American absurdist Christopher Durang … Continue reading →

Posted in News/Views, Previews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Shadow knows: putting the comedy back into Chekhov, and the new season

A grown-up homecoming in a moving musical: Fun Home, a review

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca We are all haunted, every one of us. By the great mysteries of our past: our families. By the questions we live with that never got answered. By the tiny moments that slipped by at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A grown-up homecoming in a moving musical: Fun Home, a review

Alison at three ages, and the actors who play her in groundbreaking Fun Home

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Everything about the clever, heart-wrenching musical that opens Friday at the Varscona stands off the beaten track in the musical theatre-land. And it’s produced by a little company that specializes in off the beaten track musicals, … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Alison at three ages, and the actors who play her in groundbreaking Fun Home

Lungfuls of anxiety: Lungs at Shadow Theatre. A review

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Times being what they are, are you still “good people” if you decide to become parents? To bring another being into a world that’s already over-crammed with beings? A kid leaves a carbon footprint that’s bigger … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Lungfuls of anxiety: Lungs at Shadow Theatre. A review

On the road again: Mesa is a trip across the border, and the generations

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca You know what they say (it’s probably somewhere in the extra-fine print on the AMA website, just kidding): You never really know someone till you travel together. The buddy pic/ road trip through America that opens … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on On the road again: Mesa is a trip across the border, and the generations

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 →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Miss Teen premieres at Shadow Theatre: game actors, tired script. A review

Merry Merry quite contrary: the Christmas spirit up against resistance, 4 festive shows on E-town stages this week

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Merry Merry quite contrary. Some are born with the festive spirit; some achieve it, and some have it thrust upon ’em. And sometimes, as you know, seasonal high spirits have to be released (or wrestled down) … Continue reading →

Posted in News/Views, Previews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Merry Merry quite contrary: the Christmas spirit up against resistance, 4 festive shows on E-town stages this week

“Ripe for a lapse”: Fallen Angels is a Bright Young Things lark. A review.

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The “nice part” of Julia is perfectly content with matrimonial “happiness and tranquillity.” There lurks, however, “a beastly, unworthy thing waiting to spring.” And, she adds darkly, “it hasn’t been fed for a long LONG time….” … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Ripe for a lapse”: Fallen Angels is a Bright Young Things lark. A review.

Happy hour from Bright Young Things: meet the stars of Fallen Angels

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “My mind is a mass of corruption,” Noel Coward told the Evening Standard in 1925. “England’s solid-gold jazz baby,” as his biographer John Lahr described him, was responding to the selection of epithets dusted off by … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Happy hour from Bright Young Things: meet the stars of Fallen Angels