"Slings and Arrows" (2003) TV series 2003-2006

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Creators:

Susan Coyne
Bob Martin
Mark McKinney

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

3 November 2003 (Canada)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The real show is backstage.

Plot:

In the fictional town of New Burbage, legendary theatrical madman Geoffrey Tennant returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival...

Plot Keywords:

Theatre | Mentor | Theatre Audience | Play Within Film | Theatre Production

Awards:

21 wins & 27 nominations

Cast

Martha Burns	...	Ellen Fanshaw (18 episodes, 2003-2006)
Paul Gross	...	Geoffrey Tennant (18 episodes, 2003-2006)
Don McKellar	...	Darren Nichols (18 episodes, 2003-2006)
Mark McKinney	...	Richard Smith-Jones (18 episodes, 2003-2006)
Oliver Dennis	...	Jerry (18 episodes, 2003-2006)
Stephen Ouimette	...	Oliver Welles (17 episodes, 2003-2006)
Susan Coyne	...	Anna Conroy (17 episodes, 2003-2006)
Graham Harley	...	Cyril (16 episodes, 2003-2006)
Michael Polley	...	Frank (16 episodes, 2003-2006)
Catherine Fitch	...	Maria (16 episodes, 2003-2006)
Leon Pownall	...	Brian (12 episodes, 2003-2005)
Rothaford Gray	...	Nahum (9 episodes, 2003-2005)
Sean Cullen	...	Basil (9 episodes, 2003-2005)
Matt Fitzgerald	...	Sloan (8 episodes, 2003-2005)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Australia:M | Canada:A

Company:

Rhombus Media

Trivia:

The fictional town of New Burbage and it's theater festival are presumably named after Richard Burbage, and actor-manager who was the star of many original Shakespeare plays and who spearheaded, in 1597, the construction of the original Globe theater in London.

Quotes:

Richard Smith-Jones: I can't comfort you right now - I'm on hold.

Smart, funny and charming

"Slings and Arrows" is a Canadian comedy in the vein of those great six or eight episode miniseries that British TV does so well. Take all the good bits of a thirteen or twenty-two episode season and condense them into six or eight hours, perfect for a couple of DVDs.

Maverick theatre director Geoffrey Tennant learns that his alienated mentor has died, and he returns to his stomping grounds, the moribund New Burbage Shakespeare Festival. There he reluctantly takes over directing the latest in a line of bloated, limp productions of Shakespeare plays that nobody watches.

The corporate sponsors want to turn the festival into a venue for musicals, his Hamlet's previous experience is action movies, his Ophelia thinks being insane is the same as being stoned, his Gertrude is his ex-lover who hates him, and he has no money for sets or costumes. As if that wasn't enough, there's a chameleon prowling around the theatre and Geoffrey's mentor his haunting him.

The plot is loosely based on Hamlet, of course: a man returns home and finds it overrun with corruption, hypocrisy and indifference, setting off an existential crisis. This time the crisis is about the point of doing live theatre, when both the actors and the audience are going through the motions. As Geoffrey's rival observes, "More people listen to the radio than go to the theatre, and nobody listens to the radio." The biggest problem is that Jeffrey's production isn't the revelation it's supposed to be. The non-sets, the lack of special effects and anachronistic costumes, doing it the way the Bard did it at the Globe, isn't terribly original. When the action star does Hamlet's soliloquy, it's just a handsome guy saying the words.

At any rate, the backstage rivalries, romances and reconciliations are what we're really here to see. Even the secondary players get to shine in fine parts: a corporate bitch bent on turning the festival into ShakespeareLand, an egomaniacal theatre director with a fake injury, a passive-aggressive theatre journalist, a pizza delivery guy/motorcycle racer who courts Jeffrey's ex, a wise backstage manager, a Greek chorus of two old theatre queens, a pair of owlish undertakers, and more.

It's both funny and compelling, and I look forward to the rumored second season.