Edmonton’s on it! For Valentine’s weekend, an evening at the theatre

By Liz Nicholls, .ca

It is the moment to jettison all residual thoughts of Valentine’s Day as a martyrdom, or more recently a massacre, or an epidemic of Hallmark rhymes. And let’s just not even get into the dismal vision of you yourself, home alone with the chocolates you bought yourself…. It’s Edmonton, for gawd’s sake, so you can apply yourself and yourselves to the happier prospect of a night at the theatre. And you can take your date, your -ex, or yourself — theatre doesn’t judge — to a wide assortment of champagne experiences. 

Alexander Ariate, Nathan Kay, John Ullyatt, Nadien Chu in Death of a Salesman, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography

At the Citadel, you can share with your significant or insignificant other (or hell, just go alone and immerse yourself) a great play. In a fine production of Arthur Miller’s 1949 masterwork Death of a Salesman John Ullyatt stars as Willy Loman, the road-weary travelling salesman who’s one of the most memorable characters of 20th century theatre, lugging cases full of dreams and delusions. Daryl Cloran’s production, beautifully staged, runs through Sunday. And you can read the review here. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.

Susinn McFarlen in Burning Mom, Arts Club Theatre Company. Photo by Moonrider Productions.

Downstairs at the very playhouse, you can the first preview of a show about dreams, and the bravery it takes to step up and make them real. Burning Mom, by the Citadel’s associate artistic director Mieko Oucho, tells the inspiring (and true!) story of her mom Dorothy who, age 63 and suddenly a widow, decides to move forward, in the most amazingly literal way … by driving to Burning Man in a massive RV. Check out ’s preview interview with Ouchi here. The Arts Club Theatre Company production runs through March 8. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.

My Testiimonial by Greg MacArthur at Workshop West. Poster image by Dave DeGagné.

At Workshop West, My Testimonial, is an intriguing theatrical experience that’s a cross between a play, a true-crime podcast, and a staged reading. The crime is real, and horrific. A theatre artist (playwright Greg MacArthur himself) is telling story of being hired to coach a witness (Sophie May Healey) in a high-profile criminal trial. The blurry frontier between fact and fiction is where it all happens. It runs through Sunday at the Gateway Theatre. Tickets (all pay-what-you-will) at workshopwest.org. Check out the preview with playwright MacArthur here.

Jimmy Hogg and Alex Dallas in ‘Evie and Alfie: A Very British Love Story’. Photo by Vincent McMillen

At the Fringe, on the very night, you can see a sweet rom-com that starts in elderly tranquillity and works backwards, through big moments. Evie and Alfie: A Very British Love Story, a rom-com by and starring Brit-born Fringe stars Alex Dallas and Jimmy Hogg, returns here for one night only. Tickets: fringetheatre.ca. See ’s preview interview with the pair here.   

The U of A’s Studio Theatre enlists Molière to put the boot into religious hypocrisy (which, as we know, is having a heyday). Kathleen Weiss directs Tartuffe, Moliere’s great 1664 comedy, scandalous and banned twice at the time, about a predatory pious hypocrite who worms his way into a rich family with a maddeningly credulous patriarch. It runs through Saturday at the Timms Centre for the Arts. Tickets: showpass.com.   

You’ve gotta love Grindstone Theatre’s V-Day pizzaz (or possibly their educational zeal). In Love Autopsy, the 11 p.m. Valentine’s Day edition, former couples are  invited onto the stage to explain how they met, how they broke up, and what happened after the break-up. The comedian Leif Oleson-Cormack, “perpetually single” as billed, presides. The guests Saturday are Katie Yoner of Rat Academy fame and Rat Academy director Joseph McManus who dated for five years before they split. Ex-couples get in free, as long as they’re prepared to get up onstage and talk about their ex-relationship. Tickets: showpass.com.

Love, in all its permutations, is getting the comic treatment from the quick-witted improvisers at Rapid Fire Theatre, too, in honour of the big day: Improv All-Stars’ Valentine’s Day edition. Tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.

Matt Cage, Melissa MacPherson, Rain Matkin-Szilagyi and Andrew McCallister in One Night With Roy Orbison, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux

At the Mayfield, you can sip an Only the Lonely (“1 oz. Peach Schnapps, 1 oz. Amaretto, orange juice and 7Up”) and listen to a hit-studded songlist by the man with the sunglasses. A Night With Roy Orbison stars Matt Cage, with an excellent band. It runs through April 5. Have a peek at the review here.

In This Is War, a response to Canada’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan by the stellar Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, four traumatized Canadian soldiers are being questioned by an unseen interviewer about a horrific incident during an op, a possible atrocity. Walterdale, a community theatre that never shies from tough material, revives the 2013 play, directed by Shawn Marshall. It runs through Sunday at the Walterdale Playhouse in Strathcona. Tickets: walterdaletheatre.com.