About six years ago, I was home for the holidays. I had visions of my family opening presents and huddling around the TV to watch Christmas movies and generally be twenty-first century Rockwellians. Alas, my parents (and the MU Tigers who went to the Cotton Bowl in Arkansas that year) had other plans. Left home alone, and too tired to try and thwart any potential home invaders’ intentions I camped on their sofa and watched anything that looked half-way decent.
What happened next was something just short of miraculous (to imply that God has any sway over what I watch on TV is a bit…narrow minded). I randomly flipped past the Sundance channel and saw a scraggly looking man sitting at a board room table place a razor blade into his mouth. That was it. That was all it took for me to be introduced to the greatness that is Slings and Arrows.
Set at the fictional New Burbage Theater Festival (that’s Canadian for “Theater Company”), the three seasons of Slings and Arrows follow the trials, tribulations, successes, and failures of a tight-knit (yet dysfunctional) group of actors, directors, and sundry theater folk. At the center of the drama is actor-turned-director Geoffery Tennant, the scraggly man chewing on a razor I mentioned above. After his one-time mentor (turned tormentor) Oliver Welles dies in a freak ham delivery truck accident (the irony is duly noted in the show), Geoffrey is asked to return to the very stage that featured his most dynamic performance and heartbreaking loss and direct this merry band of miscreants.
But Slings and Arrows is more than simply a meditation on all things “theater.” It is a work-place comedy akin to The Office (without all the obnoxious mugging. I’m looking at you, Krasinski) complete with awkward business meetings and career-minded brown-nosers. It also possesses smatterings of the governmental chicanery present in The Wire (without all the crack and crime), including a foul-mouthed Canadian Minister of Culture. But above all of that, the show features a genuine love and respect for William Shakespeare and his works as each of the three seasons feature an in-depth and modern look at Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear.
One final point: As is the case with all good drama, there is a love story. But it is neither sappy nor trite. It is genuine, somewhat sad, and (at times) ugly. Geoffery and his one-time lover and current co-worker, Ellen Fanshaw try to make sense of a relationship that defined them as individuals, actors, and friends. There is a “Ross and Rachel/Will they, won’t they?” element of their romance. But it is handled with delicate nature and genuine humor.
Whether you are looking to broaden your horizons, get whisked away to a fanciful land called “Canada,” or deepen your appreciation for the works of the Bard, Slings and Arrows will get you there. Chock full of witty dialogue, excellent acting, and resonant moments, the show will be sure to excite and entertain even the most staunch opponents to anything theatrical.