My wife and I just finished up the first season of a show out of Canada called Slings and Arrows, which centers on an imaginary theater that has traditionally performed Shakespeare but has become mired in commercialism and internal strife. It’s a comedy, but with serious undertones about the state of Art these days.

(The show’s tagline: “The real show is backstage”)

Characters include:

  • The longtime director who has stopped expected big things from the plays and dies in the first episode, only to return as a ghost to haunt the troupe and demand that his skull be used in Hamlet on stage.
  • The former stage star, who is certifiably crazy (really), but who comes back to the theater to direct Hamlet with a Hollywood movie star who has never done theater before as the main man with the haunted vision.
  • The aging starlet who was the former star’s lover but slept with the now-dead director just when things were getting good, and now has a thing for very young men, and whose life only revolves around the power of being on stage.

If you like Shakepeare and if you like the HBO-styled dramas (think Six Feet Under), then check out this show. We rented it through NetFlix.

Peace (in the lights),
Kevin