Slings and Arrows, episode 2...

[fajrdrako]

Hiding out from the heat last night, I visited maaseru to watch the second episode of season 3 of Slings and Arrows, "Vex Not His Ghost". If you don't know it: it's a Canadian show starring Paul Gross, with the motto, "The real show is backstage". Gross plays Geoffrey Tennant, the Artistic Director of the fictional New Burbage Theatre Festival. (Which looks a heck of a lot like Stratford.)

In this new episode, Geoffrey, while trying to direct King Lear, goes to a therapist to discuss his problems of crying jags and impotence, and his resident ghost Oliver turns up, as suicidal as a ghost can be, seeing no value any more in theatre. And Richard - who's supposed to be worrying about money matters - has got himself involved with the staging of the musical and just may have found the boyfriend he doesn't know he was looking for.

I have always loved this show but this season seems particularly clever - maybe because it's playing less for the laughs and more for the idiosyncracies of theatre life. Not entirely comedy or drama but somewhere in between.

Comments

[widget-alley.livejournal.com]

You know who has a freakin' gorgeous, lucid writing style? Mary Renault, that's who. I'm loving The King Must Die (although I think I still prefer The Persian Boy, because, hello, it's The Persian Boy!) Another excellent thing you got me into; I feel I should dub you official Keeper of the Fannish Treasures or something.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, isn't her writing excellent? The Persian Boy is my favourite for many reasons but I liked so many of them so much. Including her first novel, Purposes of Love, which really resonated with me. And of course Fire From Heaven. She makes ancient Greece real.

I feel I should dub you official Keeper of the Fannish Treasures or something.

What a wonderful title! I should wear a red and gold komono in honour of the post, and carry keys at my belt.