Paul Gross (left) is artistic director who sees ghost of Stephen
Ouimette in Canadian send-up of Shakespeare festival companies.
Audients who witnessed Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” on stage came to a slow realization as each of us sat there watching those two bit players from “Hamlet” aimlessly flipping a coin while awaiting their next cue: “Heads or tails” … just passing time.
Slowly we understood what confronted our eyes. We were situated exactly 180 degrees from another imagined audience watching “Hamlet” on another imagined stage of which we could only see the backside. What else are you looking at when you see two guys “waiting backstage” ... ON A STAGE!?!
“Two sides of the same coin!” Stoppard wrote with deeply layered irony.
Such a stunning moment of Shakespearean theater totally turned inside out, Stoppard tricking us with his flippant peek into the dramatic clockwork that ticks behind every curtain we recall. And of course, behind every stage is a backstage …
Now, imagine Shakespeare turned inside out for television – by a fictional theater company dedicated to keeping The Bard alive in modern times. Imagine that program being an engaging, not-boring program at all. Imagine outstanding acting and superb writing, colliding storylines, moments to ponder. Imagine not wanting your show to end. And imagine each episode of the first season starting with this catchy little ditty:
“Cheer up, Hamlet, chin up, Hamlet,Buck up you melancholy Dane.”
So begins “Slings and Arrows”, a hilariously sad dramatic comedy from Canadian tv. Clearly the creators of this monumental program are saying … “Hey, it’s about time we poked some serious fun at Shakespeare!” There’s nothing at all stuffed-shirt about this effort, although it’s quite serious in its well-intended good humor.
We know The Bard is in for a heavy shakedown at the end of the pilot episode when a major character gets run over by a lorry and turns into the show’s ghost! Let’s review the details: A series about acting starts when a Shakespearean actor gets drunk and ends up plastered recumbent in the middle of the road, only to be run over by a truck screaming in big letters the word “HAMS”. Printed right across its front. Ham Actor Killed – news at eleven!
This foreign-sounding English-language program premiered in November 2003 and ran for three seasons to achieve a kind of cult status among folks concerned with the history and future of theater. It’s a bitter-sweet backstage office sitcom about a fictional dysfunctional Shakespearean theatre festival in New Burbage Canada (could that be Stratford, Ontario?) which is attempting to nurture its “declining subscriber base” by choosing an artistic direction somewhere between The Bard and The Great White Way.
Any writer who tackles Shakespeare has to be conditioned for all the hurdles of that difficult track. Exquisitely written by actors Susan Coyne, Mark McKinney and Bob Martin – each of whom plays a character in the series as well – this is their first writing collaboration together, quite an accomplishment. Every scene seems infused with deep insiders’ understanding of what it takes to live a life on the boards under the lights. “Slings and Arrows” is moody, uplifting, provocative, confusing, complex, bold, dark, dreamy and extremely well structured.
Also note, these writers had a lot of fun with their character names, theatrically speaking of course: Ellen Fanshaw, Jack Crew, Holly Day, Oliver Welles. Clearly the program was cast with Shakespearean actors in mind. Seldom is one tv show stocked with this much acting talent. Let’s look at this remarkable cast:
Legendary thespian madman artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) sees ghosts, but also can fix toilets at his fated and obviously non-profit Theatre Sans Argent. Gross is stunning in the lead role, but can Tennant fix the festival mess at New Burbage?
Geoffrey’s on-again-off-again mate Ellen Fanshaw (Martha Burns) is his aging ever-apologetic leading lady. “Sorry for caring!” is indeed her sorrowful mantra. She seems done with the stage, although her lead roles are always there for her where Tennant is not.
Meanwhile Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette) becomes the show’s ghost after the first episode. Yes: “Oliver (what a name for an artistic director!) Welles” is the Ham-Hit-By-The-Truck who becomes Tennant’s spirit advisor/mentor, after playing his living adversary for so long.
Richard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney) is the company’s bean-counting thespian-wannabe general manager whose partner in marketing is the conniving Festival Board member Holly Day (terrific Jennifer Irwin). Together they plot to replace The Bard with more accessible fare, primarily musical comedies.
Kate McNab (an early role for now-famous Rachel McAdams) is a serious stage actor smitten by movie star Jack Crew (an early role for now-famous Luke Kirby) who’s been flown in fresh from Hollywood to play Hamlet, although the man has no actual experience with The Bard on the boards.
Darren Nichols (a brilliant Don McKellar) is the hilariously temperamental pointlessly flamboyant postmodern visiting director called in to save “Hamlet” while Anna Conroy (show co-creator Coyne) is an associate administrative director intern-Mom who falls in love with a visiting playwright named Lionel Train (Jonathan Crombie). No foolin!
Each of the series’ three seasons is framed around a Shakespearean tragedy, which is featured as the play-within-the-tv-show for that season. Let’s look at these seasonal plot-lines:
Season One is framed around “Hamlet”. Or HAMlet, if we recall the first episode’s fatal truck accident. Tennant’s rag-tag company is broke and locked out of its theater with faulty plumbing. Oliver’s sudden demise allows Tennant to entertain his chance to run New Burbage’s festival, although Oliver will not leave this mortal coil quietly. Meanwhile back at the office, Richard makes a power grab. Meanwhile back on stage, the community recalls Tennant’s nervous breakdown when he last played the Melancholy Dane. In rehearsal Tennant hands “Hamlet” helm to freewheeling Darren Nichols. Kate skips rehearsal and takes a nooner with Jack Crew while Holly Day shags Richard to Toronto for some fact-finding R&R. Finally Jack screws up the courage to take his own crack at “Hamlet”.
Season Two is framed around “Macbeth” with a “Romeo and Juliet” subplot. As Richard points out the company is going broke, Tennant gets permanent post as New Burbage artistic director. Curses!!! What will they produce? “Mackers” AND The Fated Lovers!!! Christmas interns indicate a new festival frugality at New Burbage. And “Frog Hammer” brings down a black rain of bad PR upon the theater. “Romeo and Juliet” director breaks her neck, so show-dog Darren returns to direct The Fated Lovers. Further fated Ellen and Tennant fail again at romance. Subscribers cancel tickets en masse after alienating Frog Hammer PR campaign. Ellen learns she has back tax trouble. Macbeth gets recast and New Burbage gets rebranded in a youth-quake! Richard’s “Gilbert and Sullivan” dream comes true.
Season Three concerns “King Lear”. After a successful run of “Mackers” on Broadway, the cast returns to Canada. Ellen thinks of moving beyond New Burbage. Darren is back in town to direct “East Hastings” a new youth musical. Tennant casts legend Charles Kingman (William Hutt) as Lear despite the actor’s own failing mental cruelties. Now with New Burbage in the black, Richard flexes his muscle as “Big Dick”. Kingman causes more chaos in Lear rehearsal. Shakespearean strife spills over onto the musical. At final Lear run-through, Kingman continues to blow his lines. Big Dick pushes directors to swap stages, so the musical gets the larger audience and Lear doesn’t sink the season in the smaller house. Ellen takes the tv gig. Lear is forced to cancel, although Tennant – ever the showman – arouses one final performance.
Seldom does television aspire to such wacky dramatic vision and achieve all that its potential permits. Certainly “Slings and Arrows” starts with whip-crack writing and beat-perfect acting, but it carries over into the production values and the fluid editing. Indeed, this is the tv show that told Hamlet to his own face: “And by the way you sulky brat, the answer is TO BE!” Any show that stands up to the classics like that, should get anyone’s top rating.
Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross), Darren Nichols (Don McKellar) andRichard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney) fight for artistic direction
“Cheer Up Hamlet”
“Cheer up Hamlet” sung by Cyril (Graham Harley) and Frank (Michael Polley) at the start of each “Slings and Arrows” episode of season one actually is lifted from “the Blessed Herman Bonfire Songbook (page 66)”. Here are the complete lyrics:
“Cheer up, Hamlet, chin up, Hamlet,
Buck up you melancholy Dane.
So your Uncle is a cad who murdered
Dad and married Mum,
That’s really no excuse to be as glum
as you’ve become.”
“So wise up, Hamlet, rise up, Hamlet,
Perk up and sing a new refrain!
Your incessant monologising
fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition
is embarrassing to see,”
answer is TO BE!
So shut up! You rogue and peasant,
Grow up! It’s most unpleasant!
Cheer up you melancholy Dane.”
https://youtu.be/uoZwIBww8bg
FURTHERMORE:
Watch all three seasons on line at Sundance Now (subscription):
https://www.sundancenow.com/series/watch/slings-and-arrows/c411f1fb190b2caf?season=1
For the DVD box set (three seasons of six 42-minute episodes):
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Slings-Arrows/70153368
New York Times review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/arts/television/shakespearean-struggles-both-onstage-and-backstage.html
IMBD page:
Another reverent irreverent look at Shakespeare, usually performed on stage:
http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/
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