Fuck Yeah Slings and Arrows!

18 perfect episodes of television. A true jewel box of a series.

From Wikipedia:

Slings & Arrows centers around life at a fictional Shakespearean theatre festival in New Burbage, Canada. Each season focuses on The New Burbage Festival's production of a different play. The themes of the play are often juxtaposed with personal and professional conflicts facing the festival's cast and crew.

But anyone who's seen it will tell you it's about so much more than that.

Do you like Shakespeare? Poignant reflections on the role of art in our lives and society? Looking for commentary on the business of arts nonprofit organizations, particularly theater? Are you into madcap, existentialist humor? Do you know who Paul Gross is?

Timestamp Roulette — Slings & Arrows, The Promised End

The absolute brilliance of the name Charles Kingman:

Lear is a king who learns how to be a man. Charles follows the exact same arc over the season. He’s introduced as a “lion of the theatre” — lion, the classical symbol of kings. Similarly, he treats the cast with the same imperious contempt as Lear does at the beginning. As he’s stripped of his authority (his voice, his physicality, his memory — the tools of the trade for an actor) he, like Lear, is bereft of the purpose of his life. And he, like Lear, finds his humanity in the hole that he had filled with ego long ago. It’s a beautiful cap to his arc, made all the more poignant by the lingering shot on his dressing room door after he dies, which brings the symbolism into focus.

Anyway this is out of the blue but this show is changing the way I look at life and I had to just get that out there

I only asked this a few months ago. By chance I ended up finding the series and it touched something deep inside me.

I have never met another human who has watched it. I have begged my friends to watch the oh-so-legal copy I burned myself from the DVDs.

And then, I found you here.

This was the first time I ever tried to interact with someone on tumblr. The fact that you answered, and that it meant something to you, means more than I can express.

Thank you for existing. Thank you for loving, unashamedly and openly. Thank you thank you thank you for being on this weird little corner of the internet celebrating this weird little canadian show from two decades ago.

Seriously, I love the parallel you drew with Lear and Kingman. I can't believe I didn't see it before, but that's the joy of the show—there are so many beautiful levels to it that you can watch it for the umpteenth time and still find new meaning. S3 is the hardest for me to watch, but it's also the one I have least memorized (lol), so I still get that newness most often with it and I love that.

I am so happy to connect with another person who still loves this show so much. It continues to be my favorite. Anyone who wants to get close to me has to see it. ;)

The absolute brilliance of the name Charles Kingman:

Lear is a king who learns how to be a man. Charles follows the exact same arc over the season. He’s introduced as a “lion of the theatre” — lion, the classical symbol of kings. Similarly, he treats the cast with the same imperious contempt as Lear does at the beginning. As he’s stripped of his authority (his voice, his physicality, his memory — the tools of the trade for an actor) he, like Lear, is bereft of the purpose of his life. And he, like Lear, finds his humanity in the hole that he had filled with ego long ago. It’s a beautiful cap to his arc, made all the more poignant by the lingering shot on his dressing room door after he dies, which brings the symbolism into focus.

Anyway this is out of the blue but this show is changing the way I look at life and I had to just get that out there

I only asked this a few months ago. By chance I ended up finding the series and it touched something deep inside me.

I have never met another human who has watched it. I have begged my friends to watch the oh-so-legal copy I burned myself from the DVDs.

And then, I found you here.

This was the first time I ever tried to interact with someone on tumblr. The fact that you answered, and that it meant something to you, means more than I can express.

Thank you for existing. Thank you for loving, unashamedly and openly. Thank you thank you thank you for being on this weird little corner of the internet celebrating this weird little canadian show from two decades ago.

Seriously, I love the parallel you drew with Lear and Kingman. I can't believe I didn't see it before, but that's the joy of the show—there are so many beautiful levels to it that you can watch it for the umpteenth time and still find new meaning. S3 is the hardest for me to watch, but it's also the one I have least memorized (lol), so I still get that newness most often with it and I love that.

I am so happy to connect with another person who still loves this show so much. It continues to be my favorite. Anyone who wants to get close to me has to see it. ;)

gif donated by levianity

Puncher: Henry Breedlove Punchee: Geoffrey Tennant

Memorable Lines: “You are a fucking dick, Geoffrey Tennant! I’m Henry Breedlove. I am a great actor, I do not need this shit! I don’t want to feel that kind of terror ever again.”

Why it’s Awesome: Harry Breedlove (an expy for Kenneth Branaugh) is a massively talented asshole. He has played Macbeth three times - which I’m sure he’s said at least three times - and knows the part so well that he won’t take direction. Instead he argues his refusal calmly, eloquently, nobly, and expects to be deferred to on every point.

He maintains this behavior even when he has been fired for it, even when he is warned by Brian Cabot that he’s in danger of becoming a hack, and treats being asked to return as his due, lording his victory over Geoffrey Tennant.

That was perhaps unwise, because Geoffrey Tennant is just enough of a madman, and when he’s pushed to his limit, a Magnificent Bastard. In a move worthy of the play itself, Geoffrey has enlisted the cast and crew - even uncorruptable stage manager Maria - to change the entire set and performance: Henry cannot enter where he had previously entered, he is forced to duel out on the thrust amid the audience, there is a tree where he had originally intended to stand, and Geoffrey even manipulated Ellen into taking Harry’s pants down on stage, exposing him to the world.

And once the play is done, Henry’s cultivated veneer of nobility has shattered. Geoffrey absolutely deserves to be punched in the face - but it is a Pyrrhic victory, and proves that Geoffrey Tennant has just won the war. Hail, king of Scotland!

HAIL, KING OF SCOTLAND!

girlwithlandscape:

This show is pretty fun.