Slings & Arrows - Season 3
Starring: Paul Gross, Mark McKinneyStudio: Acorn Media
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 285 minutes
DVD Release: July 3rd 2007
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DVD Review
"Pitch-perfect drama and comedy" -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Sweet, smart and seriously addictive" -- Philadelphia Inquirer
"The most fully satisfying slice of entertainment in ages" -- Newsday
As seen on the Sundance Channel
In its third season, this universally acclaimed series continues to mine dramatic and comic gold from the trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional Canadian theatre troupe, both on- and offstage.
Struggling with the unfamiliar burdens of success, the New Burbage theatre festival mounts two ambitious productions: King Lear, Shakespeare's epic tragedy, and East Hastings, a debut musical about a heroin-addicted hooker with a heart of gold. Emotionally fragile artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) coaxes legendary actor Charles Kingman out of semi-retirement to play Lear. But with plenty of personal baggage, Kingman doesn't so much play the part as live it. Meanwhile, the festival's resident bean-counter (Mark McKinney) joins forces with the musical's flamboyant director (Don McKellar) to create the unlikeliest hit in theatre history. Special guest stars include award-winning actor William Hutt of Canada's Stratford Festival and indie-film sensation Sarah Polley (My Life Without Me, The Sweet Hereafter).
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE interviews with Paul Gross and Susan Coyne; extended scenes of King Lear; bloopers; deleted and extra scenes; trailer; production notes; photo gallery, song lyrics, and cast filmographies.
Contains strong coarse language
User Reviews
Warning: "Play All" deleted scenes - Rating: 5/5
The DVD production team slipped up. Many of the best deleted scenes can be seen only if you choose Play All. The onscreen list stops halfway through the actual roster. There is also a glitch in the wonderful additional Lear material. Lear's daughter is named "Ophelia" in the credits! They just couldn't escape the ghost of Hamlet, I guess.
Is Geoffery Tennant a man More sinn'd against than sinning? - Rating: 5/5
When life takes its toll
When fate treats you bad
You used to be king
And now you've been had
Alone with you're fool
You think you'll go made
It's nice to take a walk in the rain
A stomp through a storm
Is what I'd advise
When people you trust
Tell nothing but lies
And kidnap your friend
And gouge out his eyes
It's nice to take a walk in the rain
In Season 1 of "Slings & Arrows," when the reasonably insane Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) returned to the New Burbage Theater as artistic director it was to put on a production of "Hamlet" that features a young American heartthrob as the melancholy Dane and the then unknown Rachel McAdams as the production's Ophelia. Season 2 saw Geoffrey forced to put on a production of "MacBeth" as a tribute to the late Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette), an honor made painfully ironic by the fact that the spirit of Geoffrey's predecessor and former mentor is still around bedeviling our hero. The second season was not quite on the level of the first, and so I was concerned that the third and final season would not be a charm, but continue the decline. However, by the time I watched the six episodes in which the New Burbage Theater puts on a new production of "King Lear," I had to try and decide if this last season was the best of all for this Canadian production that is a must see for anybody who has been involved in the theater, even if they have never been in a production of one of the Bard's works.
Not only is the New Burbage Theater putting on "Lear," but also a new musical, "East Hastings," a low-"Rent" junkie-musical, which directed by Darren Nichols (Don McKellar), a nagging presence who Geoffrey has had no more success ditching than he has with the ghostly Oliver. Richard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney) also has a hand in the musical's success, and while the good news is that he appears to be blossoming as a human being the bad news is also that he is blossoming as a human being. Ellen (Martha Burns) is still around, but she and Geoffrey are involved in a perpetual tradeoff between forward and backwards steps. The key new players in the mix are Charles Kingsman (William Hutt), the aged actor who comes out of retirement to do Lear, and Sophie (Sarah Polley), the young actress who will be playing Cordelia. Charles commands pretty much every scene that he is in, usually by degrading his fellow actors for their inadequacy in understanding and reciting the text, but also by declaiming Lear's lines enough to make us eager to see him actually do the play (and one of the great joys with this DVD set is that there are scenes that are just the performance of "King Lear," and not of the play within the play that is always at the heart of this series). However, the main problem turns out to be neither Charles' temper nor his temperament, but something more serious.
The most brilliant part of this third season of "Slings & Arrows" is how they milk the opening night of "Lear" (a cryptic comment that will make better sense after you watch these six episodes). After all, it is the performance that is the thing, and not the play. Whether it is "Hamlet," MacBeth," or "King Lear," it is how this cast responds to the challenge, and how comedy and pathos can be traded off at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, Geoffrey has to work out his complicated relationships with Oliver and Ellen and come to some final resolution (but we will believe both when and only when we see it). Of course, you will be sad to see it all end, and then the question is how long you will wait before you go back and enjoy the first season again. Fortunately, while the plays being performed might have been tragedies, "Slings & Arrows" really is a comedy at heart, which is why it ends, as all of Shakespeare's comedies do, with a wedding and a song (but what follows is not the song in question, but the other half of the song that opens up each episode of Season 3).
You say your daughters
Are evil plotters
A pitter patter shower will keep you sane
When all has been said
And all have been slain
It's good to take a walk in the rain
For several hours
Helps to have a howl in the rain
Without your clothes on
Nice to take a walk in the rain
If you love theatre at all... - Rating: 5/5
Then you will love Slings and Arrows. Make sure you start with Season one, and enjoy! It's excellent!!!
Slings and Arrows is Fabulous - Rating: 5/5
For theater and TV lovers alike, the marriage between the two media in this series is a delicious sundae with cherries on top! The writing, acting, direction, and production are all superb! Not to mention the added plus of philosophical undertone that will not be lost on culture appreciating souls.
Closure, with laughter & tears - Rating: 5/5
I won't repeat how wonderful the shows themselves are. The entire production earned the right to the tragic ending (interwoven with typically Shakespearean giddy bits).
As with S1 & S2, non-verbatim closed captioning mars the experience. Gotta have every word!
Features include wonderful, extended King Lear scenes. Oh! that Acorn Media would release that entire play as produced for this TV series!
I hold out hope for a deluxe all-three-season set, with audio commentaries from the cast, producers, and crew.
