Die Walküre, Edmonton Opera. Photo supplied
Graham Mothersill and Michelle Diaz in KaldrSaga, Cardiac Theatre. Photo by Eric Kozakiewicz
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
It’s an intriguing week in Edmonton theatre. An influential festival that’s all about getting splashed by the next wave. Not one but two productions, from two vastly different companies, that tap into the rich and weird vein of Norse mythology. A delish screwball comedy. A backstage theatre mishap comedy. And your last crack at the class of the jukebox musical archive.
•Nextfest, the big, bouncing, forever-young festival of emerging artists, turns 30, imagine that! This year’s 11-day (and night) edition, which runs through June 15, brings 500 category-resistant artists of every stripe (and polka dot) into Theatre Network’s Roxy. And with them comes your chance to find out what the next generation is up to. Stay tuned for more posts on the mainstage theatre lineup. Meanwhile the preview of Nextfest 2025 is here. Lucky me, I got to talk to the always inspiring festival director Ellen Chorley. Tickets: theatrenetwork.ca.
•On the Citadel’s Maclab stage, a theatre which counts as up-close in the opera world of vast halls, Edmonton Opera unveiled Die-Walkürie Thursday night. It’s part two of Wagner’s four-opera epic Ring Cycle that’s an EO first, and a sequel to last season’s Das Rheingold. It’s a wild swirl of Norse mythology and originals, poised on a treacherous frontier between the gods and the mortals. And Joel Ivany’s chamber production — nine singers and an orchestra of 18, a fraction of full-size forces — finds them in domestic encounters on a stunning Andy Moro set.
At the centre of the cycle is a fateful ring made of stolen gold. Its possessor can rule the world — if the bearer renounces love in favour of power. It’s a big downside (it takes four big operas to explore it). And it causes Wotan (the compelling Neil Craighead), the commander of the godly realm, no end of angst snared as he is in the complex unresolvable tensions between loyalty, family bonds, leadership and the rule of law. We see it in scenes with his fiery wife Fricka (Catherine Daniel) and his go-for-the-gusto Valkyrie warrior daughter Brünnhilde (Jaclyn Grossman). As a non-habitué of things Wagnerian I didn’t expect the nuances of the argument.
In Moro’s design, the stage is dominated by two huge rings each with a light-up circumference. The characters are between them, at the intersection of a massive clam-shell arrangement. One ring is tilted towards us in the air, towering over the characters, an overwhelming image of fatality, as human close-ups (you can see the gods’ eyelashes) and the natural world play across it. The video is rather breathtaking.
The other ring surrounds a pale, bare playing surface, which seems to be carved from the stage, an abstract installation cracked in the middle by a chiselled chasm. The orchestra, conducted by Russell Braun, sits fully visible upstage, in harmony with the production’s abstractions. The sound, to these ears, isn’t bombastic or lush; it’s vigorous and dramatic, which suits this production to a T.
The lingering image of Wotan and Fricka or Wotan and Brünnhilde, having it out as the great fiery globe turns in the ring above them, cuts to the heart of the whole story. And it has an equivalent of sorts in the human sphere, the taboo-busting reunion of siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde (Scott Rumble and Anna Pompeeva, both powerful singers). Incest is is a deal-breaker for Fricka (Wotan argues for giving the kids a break). Siegmund and Sieglinde’s mutual discovery, oddly in full light (designer Mikael Kangas), is marked in Moro’s projections by the magical return of Nature, and spring, to the world.
Die Walküre, Edmonton Opera. Photo supplied
The visuals are memorable. And the characters really do occupy the Maclab, theatrically, entering from the aisles or threading through the musicians. Once they arrive on that thrust stage, though, there seems to be quite a lot of pacing around and spear-waving, just to remain in motion and visible to the audience that surrounds the action. And when one character observes as another sings (Jonathan Dove’s adaptation leans into intimate two-hander scenes), there’s a certain awkwardness in the standing around, looking apprehensive.
But it’s exciting to see grand opera in a new smaller-scale way. Have a peek at ’s interview with designer Andy Moro here. Die Walküre runs Saturday and June 9 and 10, 12 and 13. Tickets: edmontonopera.com. Next season: part three, an EO production of Siegfried.
Graham Mothersill and Michelle Diaz in “KaldrSaga: A New Queer, Old Norse Cabaret.” Photo: Eric Kozakiewicz Photography
•At the ArtsHub Ortona through Sunday, Norse mythology rocks. It even gets its own built-in TED Talk. Harley Howard-Morison’s KaldrSaga, marking the return to action of the indie company Cardiac Theatre, is “a new queer old Norse cabaret,” which plumbs Norse mythology for its queer friendship origin stories. This archive inspires a flamboyant double-drag number, a Western ballad, a kooky found-object puppet. And the fun of it is that two extraordinarily nimble actors, Michelle Diaz and Graham Mothersill, play not only the title storytellers but all the characters. talked to the playwright and Director Sarah J Culkin for a preview, and then went to see and review it. Tickets: cardiactheatre.ca.
•Wicked Disaster! is the latest from Rising Sun Theatre, a company devoted to discovering and showcasing the theatrical talents of adults with intellectual disabilities mentored by theatre pros. The original comedy, by Maeve Bezaire and the participants, is about a theatre troupe and their backstage setbacks en route to a production of The Wizard of Oz. The principle at work: everything that can go wrong does, which makes the piece a sibling to such theatrical hilarity as Peter Pan Goes Wrong. It plays Saturday 7 p.m. and Sunday 2 p.m. at the Gateway Theatre, 8529 Gateway Blvd. Tickets: eventbrite.ca and (possibly) at the door.
Sam Free and Karen Johnson Diamond in On The Banks of the Nut, Teatro Live! Photo by Marc J Chalifoux
•The premise of On The Banks Of The Nut, a Teatro Live! revival of the 2001 Stewart Lemoine screwball comedy, will make you smile. A temp with pizzaz and a natural take-charge quality, finds herself working for the federal talent agent for the state of Wisconsin. And instigated by her, the pair set forth into the hinterland and a rustic hotel, hunting for a citizen of rare talent. What this has to do with a romance triggered by a post-horn player’s uncanny resemblance to the late great Gustav Mahler is something you’ll have to discover for yourself. It’s a sparkler and the cast of five is captivating. Read the preview interview with Bella King here, and a review here. It runs at the Varscona through June 15. Tickets: teatrolive.com.
Niko Combitsis and Kory Fulton in Jersey Boys, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux
•Your last chances to hang with four lads from the mean streets of New Jersey who become a #1 hit-generating band are this weekend. Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, directed for the Mayfield Dinner Theatre by Danny Austin, charts the rise and fall and re-grouping of The Four Seasons. And the show is crammed with irresistible hits, and a cast (and band) who can really deliver them. Fun fun fun. Meet Austin in this preview. Read the review here. It runs through June 8. Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca.
