Slings & Arrows
1. Show up
2. Pay attention
3. Tell the truth
4. Don’t be attached to the outcome
Ay, there’s the rub. And how do you not be attached to the outcome when you have a Board of Directors, an American movie star flying in to Canada to play Hamlet, an enormous budget, internships, and corporate sponsorship? What happens then?
The character of Geoffrey Tenant (played by the gorgeous on-the-verge-of-blurpy hunk Paul Gross) is the one who really straddles this divide.
If I’m making this sound ponderous or serious, I am totally doing a disservice to the thing. It is laugh-out-loud funny. And antic. And yet totally serious all at the same time. Just like the theatre. It may seem nuts to someone who isn’t in the theatre, that people would literally be screaming at each other about the nuances of iambic pentameter, or throwing a fit because the director has placed her with her back to the audience during her biggest moment – but when you’re in the thick of it, it’s not nuts at all. Or – it IS, and it is ALSO serious. Slings & Arrows gets this like nobody’s business. Art is big business at the New Burbage Festival, and yet when you get right down to it: if the work itself isn’t good, then the New Burbage Festival wouldn’t be what it is. So the work must be paramount. And yet … will anyone pay big money to go see a post-modern rendering of Romeo and Juliet? Or a Brecht play? What about the subscriber base? Should they do a musical, just to satisfy the commercial concerns?
The New Burbage Festival has a core company of actors, it is an ensemble, these people have been working together for years. They know each other’s quirks, they are annoyed by each other, yet they back each other up when it’s curtain time. It’s like a family. A cantankerous eccentric family. They all go way way back. Everyone holds grudges for YEARS. Nobody is particularly likable, and yet they are all totally lovable. I love these people. I love them so much.
MINOR SPOILER HERE:
Oliver Welles is the long-suffering artistic director who SPOLER dies in the first episode. And yet he pops up throughout the rest of the series, a wandering ghost in the theatre, with unfinished business – professionally (he has always been haunted by Macbeth, obsessed by it for decades, and yet had never done a production of it that really satisfied him) and personally (the ruptured relationship he has with the lead actress of the company and Geoffrey Tenant, who had once been the star actor of the company).
Oliver Welles is played by the marvelously sour Stephen Ouimette, a man who had once been at the forefront of the exciting theatre movement in Canada, doing groundbreaking productions of Shakespeare that people still talk about 10, 12 years later. He is now depressed, skating on his reputation, phoning it in, directing a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream in an almost somnambulist state of crankiness and apathy. In one of the first scenes in the first episode, they’re having a tech rehearsal, and you can tell that this is a very over-produced show, that the play itself is lost in the special effects. A platform is rolled onstage with fake sheep on it for one of the pastoral scenes. Oliver turns and shouts up at the lighting booth where the stage manager (a terrifically funny performance by Catherine Fitch) is suffering through her light cues – and says, “MARIA. Where are the bleats?” (Meaning: sound cue of bleating of the sheep). Maria says back, confused, “Oh, so you DO want the bleats?” Oliver, completely annoyed, shouts back, “Of COURSE I want the bleats. Without the bleats, there’s no IRONY, Maria. Everybody knows that.” And put a fork in Sheila, I’m done. I was hooked from that moment forward. Only in that context would any of it make sense, and even then, it’s totally ridiculous. The bleating sheep add IRONY? What??
One of the best parts of the series is that the backstage relationships are totally engrossing, yes. We get clashes between director and actors, stage manager and actors, the business manager and the artistic director … but we ALSO get a nice detailed look at rehearsal processes, and we also see a seriousness about the work itself that, when all is said and done, is what it’s all about.
Each season (and there are three) span the rehearsal process of one particular show. The first season is Hamlet, the second season is Macbeth and the final season is King Lear. So we get to see the process from start to finish. Is the actor cast as Macbeth really right for the part? What the hell are they going to do about the AWFUL actress cast as Ophelia? And etc. It’s just a joy, and I would say to any teacher at a high school level, trying to teach any of these plays, popping in Slings and Arrows to show the kids some of these rehearsal scenes would be invaluable. Not only is it amazing to watch how the series really lets the thing unfold, we get to see performances of Hamlet, or Macbeth, actually EMERGE – wonderful! – but it’s also a damn fine lesson in script analysis. It makes you think about the Bard. It makes you think about him twice. I know Shakespeare pretty well, but Slings & Arrows, like any good piece of art, made me realize how much I DIDN’T know.
Beautiful stuff.
Not to mention the acting of the leads.
Martha Burns (Paul Gross’ wife in real life, lucky lady) plays Ellen, the lead actress at the New Burbage Festival, a bit of a diva, difficult, prickly, yet a fantastic actress with a huge fanbase. She’s a leading lady. She’s been there for years. When we first meet her, she is pushing 40, and rather unpleasant about it. She takes young lovers. As in barely-legal lovers, bartenders and delivery boys. (One of the snotty members of the ensemble whispers to his colleague, “She’s trying to screw the years off.”) She is ambitious, and yet also – you get the sense that maybe she’s gotten a bit too comfortable in her position at New Burbage. She’s used to the way things are normally done. She’s a control freak. She doesn’t like to not know what she’s doing. Events begin to unfold where she loses control, and it actually turns out to be a great thing for her development as an actress (and that’s what it’s all about for artists, never forget that) – but she resists it all the way. She is a great character. Unpleasant, unfriendly, yet professional, serious about her work, and has a damn right to her spot on that stage. We can see the proof in her performances, when we get glimpses of them throughout the series.
Paul Gross plays Geoffrey Tenant, who, when the series first opens, is seen opening a new theatre in an abandoned garage in a seedy side of town. It takes a while to get the full scope of the story (and Slings & Arrows takes its time. We don’t realize what the real rupture was until the last episode of the first season.) but apparently, once upon a time, many years ago, Geoffrey Tenant was the hot new star at the New Burbage Festival, dear friends with Oliver Welles, and boyfriend to Ellen, the lead actress. But then, something happened to him during a performance of Hamlet (he was playing Hamlet, Ellen playing Ophelia), he went blank, and couldn’t go on with the play. He jumped into Ophelia’s open grave onstage and refused to come out. He was finally carted off to a mental institution, where he spent some time, and since then, he has disappeared. He has no contact anymore with Oliver, or with Ellen. You get the sense from these early scenes with him at his new theatre, that he is a true visionary, and also rather insane. He is passionate about Shakespeare, and disgusted with how commercial New Burbage has become. He wants to provide an alternative. Something real, not so slick. But, through a series of unfortunate events, Geoffrey is drawn back to New Burbage (actually dragged back), where he finds himself offered the position of Interim Artistic Director. He immediately starts stirring shit up, he doesn’t play the corporate game, he has total contempt for everyone there – and although the Board of Directors is frustrated, the actors are jazzed. Conflict arises. Not to mention the bitterness that remains between him and Ellen. It’s great rich stuff. Paul Gross plays Geoffrey as an annoying often very funny big KID. He has no impulse control. He says whatever he wants. He’s out of control, and holding onto sanity with his pinky finger. But in the rehearsal room, when he’s working with the actors, and with Shakespeare, he shines. He knows who he is there. Marvelous performance.
Mark McKinney (one of the creators of the series) plays Richard Smith-Jones, the executive director of the New Burbage Festival. The money guy. First of all, can we please just take a moment to appreciate the ridiculous humor of his hyphenated last name. Smith Jones?? McKinney is such a fine actor, this is a truly comedic and wonderful performance. I could see William H. Macy in this part. It requires that level of depth and commitment, that fearlessness when it comes to looking ridiculous, and also the ability to make the audience’s heart break for you, even though you are playing a despicable (in many ways) guy. He doesn’t understand actors or artists, he is concerned with the bottom line, he is intimidated by Geoffrey Tenant, and yet he MUST deal with him and get him under control, if the season is going to move forward. McKinney is the perfect blend of serious corncob-up-the-ass tightwad, and also goofy dude who is always in panic-mode. He’s brilliant. Not to mention the fact that this whole thing came partly from his brain.
The marvelous Susan Coyne, one of the leading ladies of Canada, (as well as one of the creators of Slings and Arrows), plays Anna, the by-the-book on-top-of-EVERYTHING administrative director of the festival. She manages EVERYONE. She runs around, in a tightly controlled run, wearing bright little suits, she loves the actors, she has total sympathy for them even though she doesn’t understand what the hell they are doing in their “process”, and her whole life is keeping New Burbage running smoothly. She’s got a tough job. She is one of the only people in this entire world who seems to have no ego. She’s not a wuss, she’s a tough cookie, but she isn’t driven by selfish reasons. She runs around like a chicken with her head cut off, dealing with press releases, and sending car services to pick up the movie star flying in to play Hamlet, and keeping everyone happy, making sure everyone feels their concerns are heard. Susan Coyne is a fantastic actress and Anna, who could have been a humorless finger-wagger, is anything but that. She’s all heart. She also has moments that are as funny as anything that happens in the entire damn series. I love her.
Each season has different guest stars, since the New Burbage Theatre Festival, along with its core ensemble, hires out.
In the first season, the luminous Rachel McAdams (I would swear that this girl blushes on cue, like Duse did), gives one of her nicest performances, as Kate, an apprentice at the theatre. Being an apprentice at a theatre like this means you are paid diddly-squat, you understudy lead roles (but you’ll never get to play them), and you play third maid to the left. You probably are also involved in the theatre’s outreach programs (all such theatres have them: teaching acting workshops at schools, or whatever). You get Equity points, and you have the possibility of, you know, working there again. If you’re lucky. Kate saw the New Burbage production of Hamlet (starring Geoffrey Tenant, before he went batshit crazy) when she was 12 and it changed her life. She knew she had to work there someday. She plays a fairy in Midsummer Night’s Dream, and then she is the understudy for Ophelia (who is a terrible, hopeless actress). But Kate is a team-player, just so excited to be there, she isn’t a climber, she really submits to the process. This is the biggest moment of her life. McAdams is marvelous here. She’s playing your basic ingenue, but she manages to infuse Kate with some real pain, some anxiety and insecurity, and yet when the time comes for her to “show up” on stage, she can do it. You get the sense that this young actress will go far.
Thrown into this mix is a big-wig action star in Hollywood, who is coming to “play Hamlet“, even though he has no stage experience, and zero Shakespeare experience. He is a hot young actor in Hollywood and he thinks that “playing Hamlet” would give him some legitimacy “in the States”. Or, no, the way he puts it is: “My agent thinks it will give me some legitimacy in the States.” You can imagine how this might go over with the ensemble members at the New Burbage, who have devoted their lives to the place … it’s not a waystation for them, or a stepping-stone, it is their LIVES. Jack Crew is his name. Of course it is. He strolls into the rehearsal process, ready to learn and do a good job, of course, but you can feel the low expectations of him. Luke Kirby plays this role, and this kid is terrific. I actually think that the role of Jack Crew is the most challenging in the first season, because if he just comes off as a dick, none of it would work. He has to have the ability to show his insecurity, and then underneath that, his sheer TERROR at having to stand up on a STAGE and say “To be or not to be”. But he’s a movie star. He has 10 projects in the pipeline. He has that glow around him, of success. But he’s not a dick. He becomes the person you are rooting for the most in this thing. Rehearsals go by, and he avoids doing “the text”, he improvises around the text, telling people “it’s a Method thing. The words have to be my own before I can own them.” There is some validity to this process, but eventually, at the end of the day, you have to say the words Shakespeare wrote. Will Jack be able to make that leap of faith? It’s thrilling to watch his struggle. Again, he has the trappings of stardom. The sunglasses, the hoodie, the leather bracelet, the stack of movie scripts on his dresser … But that doesn’t necessarily mean he is a soulless dick. A lesser show, a show with more of a CHIP on its shoulder, would have made Jack suffer more, to show him that what they were doing was REAL art and he was just a sellout, not a real actor. But Slings & Arrows isn’t interested in making that kind of judgment. Even though he does big action movies with almost no dialogue, he is in the same damn field that they are. THEY may resent him, because there are obviously many brilliant young classically trained actors who WON’T be playing Hamlet, because HE will be … but that’s the biz. They all understand that. Having Jack Crew play the part will also pack in the audience. BUT. BUT. What about JACK’S experience of this whole thing? What is HE going through? Slings & Arrows really delves into that with him, and it’s one of the most moving parts of the entire first season. It doesn’t PRETEND to reconcile art and commerce. They are not to be reconciled, because both exist, regardless of the other. Jack is rich and a star. But when he’s up on that stage, with no camera on him, no cut-aways, no close-ups, he must rely on something that is inside him, that was probably there in the beginning: the desire to play make-believe. He needs to call upon something ELSE. And that will ALWAYS be the case. I just love that the creators of Slings & Arrows took him seriously (even though there are many ridiculous and funny scenes of him “improvising” Shakespeare scenes, as all of the other actors glance at each other in a worried manner, like: “Uhm … was that my cue? Because I can’t tell …”), and let HIM have a growth-spurt too.
Good work.
I’ll be writing more about Slings & Arrows, but this is the opening salvo. If you HAVEN’T seen it, then all I can say is: do yourself a favor. You will not be sorry.
Oh my gosh, I LOVE Slings and Arrows! I am so excited to read this! Coming from a music performance background I knew that they were SO getting right the manic-depressive joy of performance, but it’s great to know they’re getting it right from your theater-based perspective.
Did you know Oliver was going to die? My friend who told me about S&A swears up and down he told me, but I didn’t remember at all and was completely floored by that.
Also, I love love love poor hilarious Richard Smith-Jones. And Anna is my absolute favorite (especially in Season 3).
I am really curious to find out what you thought about subsequent seasons. I adored Seasons 1 and 2 and felt wildly ambivalent about Season 3 (in a lot of ways, for much the same reason I feel wildly ambivalent about King Lear)… but… perhaps that’s a discussion for your next posts :)
Oh, Richard Smith-Jones. I mean, honestly. What a great great character. I love his vulnerability – which comes off as totally ridiculous – because you want to scream at him, “TAKE A STAND.” Mark McKinney is so so good!!! And yes, Anna. Her journey in Season 3 is so funny and so RIGHT, isn’t it?? That playwright just STOLE from her – it’s like she suddenly got sucked into how ugly the business can be. She’s such an amazing actress.
For me, Season 1 is the best. The budding romance between kate and Jack Crew is just so sweet to me, and really works. I love how Jack has to really step up to the plate, maybe for the first time in his life, to really do this role. Doesn’t surprise me at all that he would fall in love for the first time as well – it’s like we watch him become a man, during the process of him learning to play Hamlet. It sounds so hokey when I write it out – but isn’t it so moving??
So many funny lines.
How about Darren Nichols, the AWFUL and PRETENTIOUS guest director?? I love him!
“I’m Darren Nichols,” he says to the actors on the first day of rehearsal. “Deal with THAT.”
If I had to choose, I would say I was most ambivalent about season 2 – but I have to watch it again to really comment on it. I think because I never believed that that guy playing Macbeth was a huge star – he seemed so schtickish to me, so stock and cliched. But I have to think about that.
I did love, in season 3, that they ended up doing King Lear in the church rec room, basically – to me, that says: Look, if you’re in the theatre, a stage is a stage. a Million dollar stage, or a street corner – it’s all a stage. I liked that aspect of it. And I liked Sarah Polleys journey in season 3 – she was on the way to being one of those perpetually bitter actors – and maybe she was shaken out of that a bit.
I’m looking forward to going through them again.
More to come!!! I really look forward to hearing more of your thoughts!
Richard Smith-Jones to Darren Nichols: “EVERYONE cries when they’re stabbed! There’s no shame in that!!”
Oh, and no, Oliver’s death completely blindsided me!!
I ADORE Slings & Arrows–one of the great tragedies of my TV-watching life is that there were only 3 seasons. (I tell myself it’s better to burn out, etc. etc., but then I get greedy and want *more*…I would trade two seasons of The West Wing for Geoffrey doing Othello).
Reba – hahahaha I agree! Or Ellen playing Cleopatra (like Geoffrey promised her!!!!)
God, so so good.
OH MY GOODNESS. I LOVE Slings & Arrows So Dang Much. And it was because of this blog that I started watching it! I had heard about it before–it sounded interesting–but after it was given the O’Malley stamp of approval, I gave in to my impulse and watched Seasons 1&2 on Youtube. (Unfortunately I decided to do so during finals weekend… getting sucked into a mesmerizing TV series was not originally in my study schedule. For obvious reasons.)
I just love how in the first episode of Season 2 there’s the matinee performance of Hamlet… and everyone’s planning on phoning it in beucause it’s for the kiddies… and Geoffrey’s like “HECK NO. Btw, Ellen, did Gertrude off Ophelia?” That moment- and the result- just seemed like the perfect answer to “how do you perform the same thing night after night (after afternoon?)” Well…you don’t, actually.
I remember- was it in Season 2?- Richard S-J getting the clarinet, and even though he was getting no work done and sounding absolutely atrocious I could FEEL this hope in my chest, like “Oh… oh… this could be it! He could join the human race!” I got so sucked into his journey into personhood… that the outcome was really crushing, as in my HEART felt like it was being crushed. Basically I transformed emotionally into Giles Corey. He gained a soul… at the expense of everyone we have come to love. RSJ, HOW COULD YOU?!? Although his little diagram, outlining the problems with the musical’s structure, KILLED ME. I loved how ridiculous the musical was, and yet it wasn’t treated by contempt by the writers (even if the Shakespeare folks did)… it’s different from Shakespeare, maybe not as great, but still theatre nevertheless.
And then there’s Paul Gross. Words fail. He’s so fantastic.
And the priest counselor in the third season! With the fish! And the tiny chairs!
And Gilbert Blythe playing the selfish amoral playwright! (That about made me keel over with shock, since when I first saw him I was like “Gilbert!” and then subsequently my reactions did a 180 to “Scum!” whenever I saw him! Confusion… confusion…)
So apparently I have a deep unrealized need to babble incoherently about Slings and Arrows- a need that I didn’t know was there. But has now been realized! Yay!
One more thing–I wanted to grab Clair by her strangly red hair and drag her off of the stage. Her with her bratiness and her dirty mind and her Vietnam-flashback style of acting. GRRR!
OK, seriously one more thing– Ellen’s boytoy from the first season, watching her as Gertrude break down, as he’s clutching the Scream blow up doll, is so adorable and ridiculous I can’t even deal with it.
THANK YOU for writing about this- both in the original post that prompted me to look it up and this more indepth post (promising more to come, SQUEE!) And I’m sorry for blithering on, I’m just so excited!
P.S. About Season 2- the Romeo & Juliet subplot also struck me as less interesting, even though I loved the chess piece headgear, and in fact, if someone offered me a giant bishop to wear upon my head I would don it IMMEDIATELY. I cared less and less about the younger couple as the sesasons passed. Give me more Geoffrey and Ellen, darnit! That’s where the action’s at!
LOVELOVELOVE Slings & Arrows. I almost feel that (being a scientist and all) having watched this gives me bragging rights whilst I am amongst my theater friends. I mean hey – William and Henry James were brothers, so there’s kind of a precedent for these sorts of things.
Can I just say that I adored Sarah Polley’s character Sophie in season 3? Can I? Because I have totally been there and I FEEL for that girl.
PS – I made a Christmas list for some of my friends a couple of weeks ago, and there are definitely 3 people who are getting season 1 in their stocking. Maybe even 4.
Ahhh, I’m so glad you posted this. I’m one of your never-comment-lurkers…but I had to come out of the woodwork for this one.
Love Slings and Arrows. Love it. Watched most of it while still in theatre school up here in Canada–and of course at the time it seemed like it was MADE for especially us–which is the best thing, when you’re watching something. And it was so funny to graduate and go on to work in professional theatres and find yourself at an opening drinking cheap champagne while the wife of a sponsor turns from the GM to you and says “And were YOU in the show?” and think–god, they got it SO RIGHT.
This next bit is so self indulgent, but I’m also glad you posted this tonight because I watched the series as a sort of ritual with my boyfriend when we were first dating. And he today told me that he’s moving to India. For…an indeterminate amount of time. So it’s parting ways and packing up the life we’ve made together. This is not entirely unexpected. But I’m totally heartbroken. But you know, your post, your bit about Jack Crew, oddly, reminded me not to take the easy way out of the story, not to take it out on him, not to punish, blame and claw…anyway. Thanks. You rock.
(I’m now totally going to go rifle through your archives for a few tear-jerkers to read with my ice cream. ‘Cause I’m not entirely opposed to being a cliche at the moment.)
I’d heard good things about this series, so after reading this I went to YouTube to hunt for clips. After watching the bit where he tries to explain to Claire how Ophelia is feeling that was funny, touching, and powerful in equal measure I netflixed the whole thing. Claire is a tricky part, in the bit I saw I like how the actress was able to play both terrible and shallow and yet show she was touched by his words to her even if her character didn’t fully understand them.
Jessica – wow, yes, you nailed it in your observation about how Clair is handled. She is not well liked at the theatre – mainly because she ruins any play she is in, but she’s there because her Uncle is on the Board or something like that. She is definitely a trouble-maker, a bit – and one of those actresses who cannot rely on her talent alone (somewhere deep inside she knows that) – so she resorts to other actions that sometimes are not so nice. She’s not an out-and-out saboteur of other young actresses (the Kate character) – you can see right through her – but somehow she manages to convey that it is from insecurity, not sheer evil.
She’s also allowed to have depth. Even the caricatures have depth here.
I love that scene where he explains Ophelia’s mad scene to her.
Courtney – I am sorry to hear about your heartbreak. :( I know it sucks, I know it’s hard.
Thank you for coming out of lurk-land, and also for your comments here. I can imagine, too, that Canadian actors would REALLY see themselves here – with the references to the Canada Council and different Ministers – I have a dear friend who is a film director working out of Canada, and many of those things I am familiar with mainly because of her. It’s different in the States, although the principles are the same: where do you get grant money, who do you have to suck up to to get funding, etc.
I have had so much fun reading all of these comments!!!
Lizzie – the boytoy with the Scream blowup doll, and he’s wearing a tuxedo? with a look of total vulnerability on his face from the audience?? hahahahahaha AWESOME
Again: they could ahve totally made him a cliche, and in some ways he is: beefy six-pack, not too bright, etc. – but then: he knows how to take care of chameleons, for example. AND: he is capable of being totally blown away by her, even though he has no idea what’s going on. Like he’s not just a stupid sex-toy. He sits there, in his tuxedo, holding that damn doll – and you can see his whole world shift in his head – right??
Adorable- I love that character. Sloane!
sheila! do you want to hear something totally and completely weird?? (to which, i know your response would be “ALWAYS.”)…i think i still have season 3 of yours at my house from way back when we were having a slings and arrow’s marathon…and we never got to this final season. so when i woke up this morning, i was thinking that maybe we should watch season 3 tonight when you come for our friday night slumber party. so this occurs to me as i’m walking to the subway and the more i think about it, the more it feels like a perfect idea and…. then i go to check out your blog and your opening post is about the show….
it must be slings and arrows weather or something. can’t wait for tonight.
Loved Mark McKinney in Studio 60, too.
Another lurker drawn out to comment. I love, love, love this series!! More reasons than I can count to squee about it. So glad you are writing about it. I love to read your blog because of the intensity of your interests. So much fun to hear your take on the nuances.
For me, as a non-actor married to an actor, the writing of this series is so satisfying. They balance the inside look at the repertory life with the outsider’s puzzled amazement at the offstage dramatics so beautifully. The respect for art shines through all the series, but the self-aware humor keeps it from being pretentious.
Plus – Paul Gross yum!
Jane
// The respect for art shines through all the series, but the self-aware humor keeps it from being pretentious.//
Absolutely, Jane! Can you imagine how insufferable it would be if the Darren Nichols guy, Mr. Serious Artiste, was NOT made to be a buffoon? That is not to say that taking art seriously is not a worthy way to spend your time – but there’s a difference between Darren Nichols (God, I love that character) and Ellen, or Geoffrey – who TRULY want to do good work. For the work’s sake.
I also just love how funny it is. I need to do a post where I just pull out some of the funniest exchanges.
Someone very casually recommended this show to me as funny and about actors. Having netflix, I got it and was completely blown away. This is my all time favorite tv show. I daydream this show. I think about which character I have been in the past and which I am now, under what circumstances. I desperately needed to discuss season three when my friend ( who was only as far as season 2) insisted on no spoilers, but then slowed down with his watching. He got distracted.
I’m so glad you’re going to have more posts here.
This is gonna be fun!!
Yes, yes, yes! Oh, Richard… Season 3 Richard was just SO heartbreaking (Lizzie, you are absolutely right, I adored Richard’s musical diagram… and one really got his love for the musical!) — and Season 3 Anna, OH. I feel like she’s the real hero of Season 3 who makes hard choices and sees them through.
Oh, yeah, I LOVED Darren Nichols. And the mind game Geoffrey does on him, that just made me howl with laughter.
Kate and Jack are really sweet, and I agree with Jack’s journey — that was really amazing to watch (and one of the (many!) things that made me fall in love with the show)… I think you’re right, Season 1 was the best.
Oh, I went back and found what I wrote in my LJ when I watched this:
This show has accomplished something I thought was impossible: it got me to fall in total and raving love with a show where I’m not particularly taken with the (particularly non-romantic) relationships between characters. I adore Geoff with a mad and absolute love; I love the two old gay guys whose names I don’t even know; though I do not love Ellen (although I am fond of her) I squee every time Geoff and Ellen are in a scene because they have amazingly hot chemistry (this from someone who generally gets distracted by shiny things like aluminum foil than watch most screen romance/sex scenes) and in general are So Clearly Dysfunctionally Right For Each Other; I love Maria who hardly gets any screen time but is awesome anyway; I adore Anna (and though I do not love Richard I enjoy watching him and I triply love any scene with Anna and Richard interacting). [Note: I wrote this before I watched Season 3 and fell in love with Richard and had my heart broken by him.]
I think the thing is: yeah, it’s not about relationships, which is usually what draws me in. Well, it’s not about person-to-person relationships. But it’s about the relationship of people to a production, to producing something, and to the audience and the cast of a show, and all of that is so heartbreakingly right that it has won my heart. (It’s no coincidence that the show won my heart in the “production” (season finale) episodes, where we actually get to see bits of the performed plays.)
How about how Nichols goes and studies puppeteering or something in the Swiss Alps, and it “made him weep”. hahahahahaha
Allison – I left season 3 at your place? wow!! so it really has been a while since I saw it!! Yes, yes, let’s watch it tonight. Can’t wait!
Kelly – One of the good things about the series is that I can relate to each one – even their bad parts – and go, “God, I was so like that that one time” – the Sarah Polley character in Season 3 DEFINITELY – someone else here said they saw themselves in her (sorry, can’t scroll up right now to figure out who) and I totally feel the same way. It is so so easy to get trapped in a general vibe of self-righteousness as well as anger and bitterness – like it is her STANCE in life, it makes her able to IGNORE her own work and her own growth. So then she is thrown into the situation with the actor playing Lear, who is not impressed with her, doesn’t even know her name – and does she storm out? No. She takes it. And you know what? She learns some things. It’s GOOD to be taken down a peg from time to time.
There’s so much more to say – my mind is racing right now!
One of the best parts about Season 2, in my mind, was the “letting go” of that older actor, who kept challenging Tennant’s authority. He was NOT going to be in Macbeth – and there’s quite a silent war of hostility going on between them. So that’s interesting in and of itself but why this show is so damn GOOD is because later – when Henry Breedlove the big star who had played Macbeth 3 times – is doing BADLY in the production – the older actor sits in on a rehearsal and basically realizes: “Tennant is right. Breedlove isn’t listening.”
The details are a bit lost to me right now – but the fact that they allowed this older guy, who had already been set up as rather arrogant, condescending (and he IS) – but they also let him have depth, and a moment where he got beyond his own ego, and anger at Tennant, to realize: “Okay. He’s got a point. This actor is not following direction.”
VERY moving to me. So few shows (or movies) give minor characters that amount of depth and complexity.
And that has been my experience in the theatre frankly (and life, in general – but let’s just focus on the theatre): the biggest egomaniac may also be the one who hosts lavish parties, inviting the crew and techies and box office workers – making everyone feel a part of it. And the snottiest person in the background may actually be working out of fear and insecurity, rather than actual malevolence.
We’re ALL mixed bags.
Well. Maybe not Darren Nichols. hahahaha!
Charlene – I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. So many “situational” dramas – like ER, for example – start out with a nice blend of work and life – like any of us experience in the workplace – but too often the work stuff starts to get pushed to the side, and the soap opera relationships take center stage.
Slings & Arrows always always keeps the artificial SITUATION at the forefront. They are behaving ONLY in the context of that theatre, their jobs, their rehearsal process – and also how whatever play they are rehearsing starts to impact them.
Right?
So with Hamlet – we get Ellen playing Gertrude. Ellen the actress is starting to fear growing old, and she takes more and more inappropriate young lovers, to convince herself she’s “still got it”. Uhm, Gertrude?
And Jack Crew, a young kid, starts to realize in his PERSONAL life – that he has never before “taken action” – he has dated supermodels, and whatever, he’s not into that whole scene, but he’s never taken an active role in finding an appropriate mate. So – through the course of playing hamlet – the most famously indecisive individual in perhaps history (he can’t even decide whether to “be” or “not to be”!) – in the course of playing the Master of Indecision, the actor not only steps up to the plate as an ACTOR, and rises to the challenge of the ROLE, but he also has the presence of mind to look at his sweet little new girlfriend, and go: “Okay. This is it. I’m willing to SAY that this is it, and I’m going out on a limb here.”
There are so many examples of this through the series – with the works of Shakespeare actually running through these people’s lives (not to mention the wandering ghost of Oliver Welles, like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, or Banquo’s ghost, etc.)
I love that mix of art and life – it’s sort of like when you’re reading a really good book and you suddenly start to feel it WORKING in your life. it becomes a narrative that YOU have stepped into.
Slings & Arrows gets that perfectly. It so often happens in the theatre – it’s why co-stars fall in love with each other so often, even inappropriately – because the lines are blurred. You ARE in the story. It is working on YOU, rather than you working on IT.
Oh, and how about the janitor? I am not remembering his name right now, but I love him. How much a part of the process he is. How much he HATES Macbeth. His strange insightful comments thrown into the mix as he walks by with his bucket.
I’ve been thinking about an S&A rewatch lately. Been trying to watch Eastwick just because of Paul Gross being in it and I’m frustrated by how unclear all of the characters and motivations feel to me – just seems like the creators are winging it from week to week.
Reading all of the comments about the many great fully realized characters and moments has me ready to dig it out again.
//The details are a bit lost to me right now – but the fact that they allowed this older guy, who had already been set up as rather arrogant, condescending (and he IS) – but they also let him have depth, and a moment where he got beyond his own ego, and anger at Tennant, to realize: “Okay. He’s got a point. This actor is not following direction.”//
Yes! And the fact that he resolves the issue between Geoffrey and Breedlove despite his continued disapproval of Geoffrey is a great point. A very real thing to do.
Darren Nichols and his caged chess piece Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorites – but even he is allowed to have growth to his character when he realizes it isn’t working. So of course he brings his avant garde approach to having them all reconnect in rehearsal with the glow in the dark paint. He doesn’t stop being pretentious, but we still get to see his love for the work.
I could go on all day – fun discussion.
Oh my gosh, isn’t this the most incredible tv EVER? I thought the 1st episode caught that feeling when a great show makes you feel all-powerful and you know ever after that life might never live up to it. I had a lump in my throat through the half of this show I wasn’t guffawing through.
Another Slings & Arrows fan here! I can’t even remember why I looked it up in the library catalog, but all of a sudden I was requesting every disc from every season–even borrowing Season 3 from a co-worker. I know I did at least one post about it at the beginning.
Did anybody else cry when Geoffrey laid out all the underpinnings for Ophelia’s “And will’a not come again? . . . He is gone” lines??? That was just one of those moments that blew me away. (Was that the lump in the throat feeling, Ted?)
How fun would it be to get all of us together for a viewing party?
Oh, gosh – I hadn’t thought about that with Jack — but you are spot on. Yes! Now I think I need to go back and watch season 1 again…
Oh, yeah, I totally love the janitor. Did I miss his backstory somehow? Seems like he must have some interesting backstory… or maybe he has just picked a lot up seeing all these crazy people! :)
Charlene – Yes! He was a theatre director in his native Nigeria. There’s that really funny scene where he and Oliver are sitting watching the news footage of Geoffrey Tenant being dragged into a police car after he wrote a bad check to keep his theatre going. And the janitor has a huge smile on his face and he says, “This reminds me of Nigeria.” Oliver says, “Really?” Janitor replies, “Yes, on our opening night of ______” (and he names some classical play) “soldiers from the regime burst into the theatre and stopped the performance beating us with sticks.” hahaha all with this huge smile of fond remembrance on his face. Oliver looks almost jealous and says, “Now THAT’S theatre.”
Ted – I’m so glad to hear you’ve seen it!! Yes, there is nothing like that high of a perfect opening night – and there is such sadness there at the very same time.
I love how the show doesnt pull its punches. It’s not a COZY world – and yet, when moments of warmth or truth come up – it’s that much more moving.
Like when the understudy for Macbeth, a little measly ensemble player who has never played a lead in his life, suddenly has to go on – for one night only – and he barely knows the lines, he is in a complete panic – and he has a night that will change him forever. He DID it. it will never happen again. God, tears just streamed down my face watching that – because it’s one of those moments where you can see an actor with total self-knowledge. He knows he’s not a great actor, he would never be cast as Macbeth, he’s a middle-aged man who plays small parts at New Burbage – but suddenly, he is thrust into the limelight.
I love that episode the most, I think. It KILLS me. that actor is just wonderful.
Oh and Ted – Craig from Phoenix Theatre saw this post of mine on Facebook and we’ve been having a really fun conversation over there about it. He wants to do a Slings & Arrows marathon with Phoenix types and I totally want in on that!!
Jerry!!! I LOVE him, and how excited he is the night after he plays Macbeth, and he comes in with all of his lines memorized… and Geoffrey has to let him down so gently, and he takes it so well. Also- the fact that he’s in every single episode- including all the way through the first season, where he’s just in the background- and then he BURSTS into the spotlight for his one night of glory. And it’s so wonderful that he’s not forgotten, but then cast as Kent in King Lear (even if he doesn’t get to perform it)- just because he isn’t a leading man doesn’t mean that he isn’t perfect for other important characters like Kent.
And what about the corporate seminar thing, where Geoffrey’s supposed to use Shakespeare to “demonstrate leadership skills” and instead he has everyone perform and Terry does “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” and suddenly everyone looks at him with a new respect- and HE sees himself in a whole new light?! SO good.
The characters in this are all so RICH- like Sloane with his unexpected emotional perception (“Stop shutting me out of your world, Ellen”) or Basil and Cyril taking Richard under their wings to help him get ready for his audition. It’s shockingly good, really.
OH- does anyone else find themselves randomly belting “Look at Lulu- Lulu’s stopped her cryyy-ing? Look at Lulu- Lulu’s not a-frightened anymore…”? Because I sing it ALL THE TIME. I can’t stop myself! It’s so dang catchy!
Lizzie – awesome awesome point about Jerry playing Kent. Thank you so much for that. yes: because the ensemble isn’t anonymous – they are ESSENTIAL – and it is these second-tier actors, the “Jerrys” – who REALLY make the theatre. We can’t do without our stars – but they couldn’t do what they do without the Jerrys. It’s a dignified profession, and there is dignity in being SUPPORT to the star.
oh – and how about Barbara, Ellen’s friend who comes into Season 3 – the TV star playing Goneril?? I LOVE HER. I LOVE that actress. I can’t even talk about how funny I find her – and real. She’s annoying, but I think she’s FANTASTIC.
More to come … I’m in the middle of re-watching season 3 right now.
This conversation here has really fired me up!
And I’m sorry: when the stranded Bolivian musicians are suddenly roped into the impromptu Lear to create the storm with their instruments …
Seriously. It’s just too much. I CAN’T TAKE IT.
I am so thrilled with this! I had not thought of how the richness comes largely from their relationship to each other as a group.
I also loved Ellen being audited. The auditor was a professional with compassion, depth, and a love of the arts. The photo of her kid on her desk was perfect. Ellen really made her point too. She SHOULD be able to deduct her sixty dollar bra. It was a complex exchange, masterfully handled.
As for Geoffrey, when does genius become madness? How much will others put up with and for what reasons? How much should be put up with? To what end?
Talk about Late to the Party…I just discovered Slings & Arrows and have binged through all 3 seasons twice (up to now) and harangued my friends about it. (One of them, an actress-writer–which is of course perfect–ended up as excited about it as I.) So I was going to ask you if you were aware of it. Silly me.
The thing’s a goddamn miracle.
That is all.
I started watching Slings & Arrows a bit ago after finding a mention of it in your review of Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell. (By the way, it’s always a pleasure to find one of your reviews on the External Reviews page at IMdB.) Inhaled season 1 in 2 days, now working through season 2 1 episode a day (week nights, can’t binge as much). So it’s both delightful & slightly frustrating to find these old posts & comment threads, frustrating b/c I’m trying to skip the seasons 2/3 comments to not get too many spoilers…
Also slowed down on season 2 b/c, since they’re doing Macbeth, I’m jumping over to Apple tv to rewatch Joel Coen’s latest.
Anyway, as always, your blog & its archives are a gift that keeps on giving.
Mike – it is so weird that you just made this comment because just yesterday I was putting together my big Women’s Day gallery and I found a pic of Susan Coyne to put in the gallery – because I just love her so MUCH, not just as an actress (although that too) – but that this whole thing was basically her brain child, in part. And I thought to myself, “Damn, I need to re-watch that.” !!
It’s been years. I think the “Hamlet” season is the best – but each one has its unique arc – and I just love how the play they are working on is also playing out in their lives. So each season is different. They’re working on the play and the play is working on them.
I saw Paul Gross on Broadway in private Lives – it was a thrill. He’s so wonderful.
I have the box set – is it streaming anywhere?
I’m so glad you found it and are enjoying it!
Ah, I saw that you had a big Women’s Day post, but I was daunted by your comment about its length so I’ve put off going into it. Will have to get to that.
I don’t know whether anyone’s streaming it; I got the DVDs from my local library.
Yeah I loved the first season. One theme in your remarks, and your commenters’, is how much the show resonates with theater people, which makes lots of sense, obviously. I wanted to mention, I am not a theater person at all, never acted nor involved in it in any way, except watching a bit when occasion arises. Still, I feel like the show succeeds in getting some of the experience across. For example, when Geoffrey shares insights into with his actors about their characters & the characters’ situations, it coees acress how insightful his remarks are. Those, and the performances that came out of them (or didn’t, in the case of the not-good Ophelia) were some of the best moments of the first season, for me. Was really gratifying to then read the threads here, and find yourself and the theater-background commenters also focusing on those scenes. That kind of thing is one reason I try not to get too many spoilers, so I can trust that my reactions, not second guess whether I’m just picking up on you-all’s commentary.
I really liked when the Lear actor started seeing and talking with Oliver’s ghost. Oliver is great, could do with more screentime for Oliver. Too bad his being dead meant no one but Geoffrey and Lear could see him, hard to get him into dialogues.
I finished S&A yesterday, just gonna leave a couple thought here. (Lizzie, above from 2009, confesses to “a deep unrealized need to babble incoherently about Slings and Arrows”; same)
First, now I can read the rest of the comments here!
The first half of season 2 dragged a bit for me. Not bad, just a bit running in place. Second half really got back in the groove though.
Their Macbeth actor gives me a strong William Shatner vibe. Not just that he kind of looks like him, but that, at in this role, he has some of the same James T. Kirk smarm. Has a very Shatner-esque smirk. Struck me first time he was onscreen and I couldn’t stop seeing it. (..Geraint Wyn Davies, name seems familiar but I don’t seem to recognize any of his credits)
(I see now your comment that you didn’t buy Davies as a big star. Funny it didn’t strike me like that, they present him as a star, I just bought him as a star. Probably relevant that I’m not a theater person so don’t really have theater-star-radar, whereas you would, so I was just going to buy whatever the show put out there. Though I guess, thinking about it, I DO feel like I can recognize that season 3’s Lear really did seem like he had that Lear gravitas, so maybe it does come across. Yeah, I dunno.)
The thing that sticks most in my head from the whole series is what you focus on in your post here, and in some of your other S&A posts, which is the times when Geoffrey gives advice to actors, especially the “Claire with the hair” insight on Ophelia, and the advice to the Hamlet actor about playing Hamlet. In all the seasons the best episodes were the last one or two where they’re doing the final tune-up rehearsals, or actually doing the opening night, but I don’t recall that the later 2 seasons repeated that “Geoffrey shares with actors his insights on how the play works”. Maybe they felt it would be too much like repeating themselves, but it’s too bad because those are great.
Darren Nichols: genius. The Wile E. Coyote of New Burbage. I did like that they gave him enough of a soul that when Romeo & Juliet kissed, negotiating around their enormous metal costumes, it brought back his love of theater (or washed away his hatred of it, however he put it).
Quoting you: “I did love, in season 3, that they ended up doing King Lear in the church rec room, basically – to me, that says: Look, if you’re in the theatre, a stage is a stage. a Million dollar stage, or a street corner – it’s all a stage.” Paraphrasing the empty-headed musical actress from season 3: there are no small venues, only small actors.
Speaking of the empty-headed musical actress, it was kind of annoying when Sarah Polley and the guy she’s carrying a torch for–he’s playing Edgar I think?–when the three of them are sharing a drink and Polley and the dude are bonding over her airheaded chatter, it struck me a little mean-spirited on the part of the show. I take that is a real serious-theater thing, to have a pointed dislike of lesser theater-like entertainments, but it seemed like the one time the show itself was in on the meanness.
Last comment for now at least [& thanks for hosting this fun discussion! & keeping it open after all these years!]: I really liked when the Lear actor started seeing and talking with Oliver’s ghost. Oliver is great, could do with more screentime for Oliver. Too bad his being dead meant no one but Geoffrey and Lear could see him, hard to get him into dialogues.
Somehow my last remark (about Oliver), got pasted in at the front too, making my remarks more deranged than they would be otherwise. Whoops.
The TV critic for the LA Times, Robert Lloyd, observed that the plays used in the three seasons – Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear – mirrored the stages of life: youth, middle age, and old age. Having read the comments, I didn’t see anyone mention that (perhaps it’s so obvious it doesn’t need mentioning?), but that was one of the hundreds of things I loved about this show.
I’ve read that the Hollywood actor who played Hamlet was inspired by Keanu Reeves playing Shakespeare at the real Stratford Festival, which is the model for the Burbage. And William Shatner did perform at that same Festival in his early days as an actor. According to Wikipedia:
“Shatner began performing at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He played a range of roles at the Stratford Festival in productions that included a minor role in the opening scene of a renowned and nationally televised production of Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex directed by Tyrone Guthrie, Shakespeare’s Henry V, and Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, in which Shatner made his Broadway debut in 1956. Shatner was an understudy to Christopher Plummer in Henry V[.]”
Whether this establishes that Shatner was the model for the character who played Macbeth in Season Two is open to debate, but it does seem possible.
Lastly, the actor who played Lear, William Hutt, was a mentor of Paul Gross. Although I’m not certain, it appears that Gross may have known that Hutt, who had retired from the stage in 2005, was dying of leukemia during the filming of the third season. In any case, Hutt died in 2007, the year the third season was first aired.
I’m only providing some factual background that I hope might be of interest, since I can’t improve upon the comments already made by you and everyone else! I’m happy that Mike Malloy commented on your essay, since it gave me a chance to read it, a mere 13 years after it was posted. (I am nothing if not punctual.)
Oh, and I wanted to mention that Geoffrey’s comment that “there’s nothing more boring than perfection” has been one of the ideas I try to keep in mind when I’m working on recording music. To that, I will now add Ellen Burstyn’s fourth instruction: “Don’t be attached to the outcome.” That one took me years to figure out and I still have to remind myself of it when I’m working. When I start recording, I usually have an idea of how I want it to sound and in virtually every case there comes a moment where I realize that: 1.) what I just did doesn’t sound like what I had in my head when I started; and 2.) it’s better. There is then a little struggle while I try to accept the new, unexpected, better thing. Burstyn’s instruction will be helpful when this situation comes up the next time.
Bill Wolfe, thanks for those additions. That’s interesting that Shatner played at the Stratford Festival, he’s so strongly tied to his rather hammy Captain Kirk role, it’s good to be reminded that he really is an actor. Related, I recently watched Judgment at Nuremberg for the first time, where Shatner appears in a small role as a kind of adjutant to Spencer Tracy’s judge character. A notably un-hammy, and quite good, performance from Shatner.
Also I rewatched the first episode of S&A season 3 last night, where they’re casting their Lear production, and Richard the business director is pressuring Geoffrey to cast…William Shatner.
I’m not sure how easily available it is to see, but Shatner was good in a 1970 PBS production of The Andersonville Trial, starring as the prosecutor opposite Richard Basehart as the Confederate officer who was tried, convicted, and executed for his administration of the Andersonville prison camp, where thousands of Union soldiers died of exposure, starvation, and disease. (A remarkable historic footnote: the judge in the trial was General Lew Wallace, who earlier had written Ben-Hur.)
Oops! Wallace wrote Ben-Hur later, not earlier.
On Wikipedia’s Keanu Reeves page, it has him appearing as Hamlet for the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1995. Per an article in VanityFair (link to their archive below), he was a bit rough opening night, but became excellent over the full run of the play. Roger Lewis (new to me, evidently a noted scholar and critic) “one of the top three Hamlets I have seen”. Interesting! Thanks for the information!
Here’s the link
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1995/8/young-and-restless