Slings and Arrows...

[fajrdrako]

Today lmondegreen and Beulah and I watched all six episodes of the mini-series Slings and Arrows, which stars Paul Gross. It's a comic parody of the kinds of things that might go on at a theatre festival like the Stratford Festival when the commercially-focussed producers have to take on a director whose interest is in artistic quality. Played by Paul Gross, the director, Geoffry, has a past with the recently-deceased previous director of Hamlet and the actress now playing Gertrude, and has to deal with his own past mental breakdown when he was playing Hamlet himself.

It's quite wonderful: funny, but with underlying serious themes. I particularly enjoyed a subplot about the actor playing Hamlet, an American movie star who has never done live theatre before, and who does it his own way.

What I liked best is the way the series shows what theatre is all about, and why people do it. Even when it kills them.

I wish I knew more behind-the-scenes gossip from Stratford, or whatever Canadian theatre was being targeted, and the actors and actresses involved. It was easy enough to guess that the American movie star Hamlet, Jack Crew, was a variation on Keanu Reeves; and that Stephen Ouimette's character was based on Richard Monette. But the others? I wonder.

I would guess that Paul Gross's own experiences in the role of Hamlet at Stratford a couple of years ago had a lot to do with this series.