A weekend at the theatre, with heroines aplenty

By Liz Nicholls, .ca

Can it be coincidence on this, the weekend of International Women’s Day, that it’s your last chance to see …

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… I Meant What I Said, Stewart Lemoine’s first new full-length comedy in seven years, premiering at Teatro Live!. On the eve of her big 3-oh birthday, Dina (Bella King), proofreader and aspiring novelist, takes charge of her own life, and the futures of the people around her. Some characters get the hook; some get revised and edited. It’s on the Varscona stage through Sunday (tickets: teatrolive.com). Check out ’s preview interview with the playwright here.

Anne of Green Gables, NUOVA Vocal Arts. Supplied photo.

… Anne with an e, the red-haired orphan with the vivid imagination, takes charge of the lives of the people around her, in NUOVA Vocal Arts’ production of Anne of Green Gables, the Canuck musical based on the evergreen 1908 Lucy Maud Montgomery novel. There’s such a wealth of emerging and professional talent available (NUOVA blends them) that director Kim Mattice-Wanat has double- and triple-cast the show. Musical director: Simon Abbott. Through Sunday you can spend time in Avonlea, and hear the country’s most memorable musical ode to ice cream (the Act I closer) in the musical that’s onstage at the Capitol Theatre in Fort Edmonton. It’s a hot ticket, but have a go at eventbrite.ca.

Mrs. Pat’s Kitchen by Jameela McNeil, SkirtsAfire Festival 2026. Photo supplied

… Mrs. Pat’s Kitchen, a featured production at this year’s SkirtsAfire Festival. Jameela McNeil’s play takes us into an immigrant Jamaican family in Edmonton and a fraught mother-daughter relationship as they negotiate cross-cultural and inter-generational currents. It runs through Sunday at the ArtsHub Ortona. Matricia Bauer’s I Am Eagle is a strikingly theatrical Indigenous  journey back to an identity and culture lost in the ’60s Scoop — in the form of an animal fantasy. Its final performance at SkirtsAfire is today  at Walterdale. Theatre. And The Shoe Project, the Edmonton edition of a national initiative in which immigrant women tell their stories, runs through Sunday at Gateway Theatre. Tickets: skirtsafire.com. Check out ’s festival preview with artistic producer Amanda Goldberg here.

… shows, both live and digital, at this year’s SOUND OFF Festival, including The MaryRobin Show and Born Between Waves, Juan Man Show, and Oh Mother, Oh Brother, and more. The 10th anniversary edition of the festivities, at the Fringe Arts Barns, ends Sunday. Check out the full schedule, show descriptions, and get tickets, at soundofffestival.com. And the festival preview is here.

And hey, it’s your only weekend to see …

Bouée (a buoy or a lifeline in English), a six-actor touring production from Satellite Theatre in Moncton, N.B, portages L’UniThéâtre, Edmonton’s francophone theatre, for the first time across the river to Theatre Network’s Roxy. Céleste Godin’s highly theatrical play has a kind of fantastical, absurdist sci-fi quality to it, with a little cosmological existentialism thrown in: a group of scientists undertake an update on the received notions of humanity’s place in an infinite universe. It runs Friday and Saturday only at the Roxy. Tickets: lunitheatre.ca.

AND ELSEWHERE …

It’s the weekend when the Citadel …

… sets off down the yellow brick road. Yes, they’re off the see the wizard. Previews start Saturday for Thom Allison’s huge-cast production of The Wizard of Oz, the 1987 musical that licenses the Harold Arlen/ E.Y. Harburg tunes from the indelible 1939 movie. Chariz Faulmino stars as Dorothy, of heel-clicking fame, with John Ullyatt as the title eminence, Luc Tellier as the Scarecrow, Hal Wesley Rogers as the Tinman, Alexander Ariate as the Lion, Nadine Whitman as the Wicked Witch of the West. And in the crucial role of Toto, the alternating pair of starry canines Scooby and Koko. It runs through April 12. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.

And this, and every weekend,  at the Exchange Theatre (Thursdays through Saturdays till March 28) …

… Rapid Fire Theatre’s The Trial, a completely improvised court case which mines, for laughter, the rich comic chaos potential and general absurdity of The Law and the justice system. Judges, juries, witnesses, defence lawyers, crown prosecutors, court reporters … the possibilities are endless for ingenious improvisers. Tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.