crack_van | Slings and Arrows: fandom overview

Entry tags:

Slings and Arrows: fandom overview

Introduction

Slings and Arrows is a Gemini-winning Canadian television series that ran for (and is complete in) three seasons, 2003-2006 (with a gap between first and second seasons).

Seven years ago, Geoffrey Tennant portrayed the most luminous Hamlet the New Burbage Theatre Festival had ever seen - then went mad. As the series begins, he is running a two-bit theatre on the verge of being evicted from its building for non-payment of its lease. After the sudden death of his estranged mentor Oliver Welles, Geoffrey returns to New Burbage to take over as artistic director - beginning with Oliver's planned new production of Hamlet. His task is complicated by the presence of Oliver's ghost, whose sniping from the sidelines is visible to Geoffrey alone; Ellen Fanshaw, the reigning diva (and Geoffrey's ex-girlfriend); Geoffrey's old nemesis Darren Nichols, who has been chosen, over Geoffrey's protests, as Hamlet's new director; and all the behind-the-scenes business problems of running a theatre company.

Each season comprises six episodes dealing with the production of a different classic. Season one is Hamlet, season two Macbeth, and season three King Lear - a metaphor for youth, middle age, and senescence. The plot arcs are nicely Shakespearean as well and subtly echo the themes of the plays. Rehearsals and performances of each play mix with the backstage drama among the characters; humour, drama, and tragedy mesh perfectly.

Geoffrey is played by the ridiculously attractive Paul Gross; his real-life wife Martha Burns plays Ellen, and their incredible chemistry as they squabble, argue, and sometimes have (implied) amazingly hot sex fuels the popularity of Geoffrey/Ellen in the fandom. Not that there isn't slash; Geoffrey/Darren and Geoffrey/Oliver are well represented, and as Oliver and Ellen slept together at some point in the past - one precipitating factor in Geoffrey's madness - the Geoffrey/Ellen/Oliver triangle gets some play as well. There is also quite a bit of gen fic.

The Slings and Arrows fandom is to some extent an outgrowth of the due South fandom, as Paul Gross played Constable Fraser in that show. Because of this, Slings and Arrows falls into the loose class of fandoms known collectively as "six degrees of Canada" (C6D): that is, series and movies with Paul Gross, Callum Keith Rennie, or any of their co-stars in other productions. Crossovers abound, mostly pairing Geoffrey with some CKR character from another show (echoing Fraser/Kowalski in due South).

The characters

The core company appears in all seasons, along with guest stars for each season who carry various subplots. As of this writing, there are few stories about the guest star characters from any but the first season. Screencaps are by

bjohan57 with the exception of the Anna cap, which is by

view_paradise.

Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross)
Geoffrey is passionate about the theatre and about Shakespeare. He is also, possibly, somewhat slightly mad. He inspires the actors, terrifies the bean-counters, irritates Ellen, and doesn't give a damn about what anybody thinks of him.

Ellen Fanshaw (Martha Burns)
Self-centered, high-strung, perpetually late for rehearsal. Sleeps with younger men to distract herself from the fact that she's getting older, but really loves Geoffrey - well, somewhere deep down, she does. If you take a drink every time she says, with perfect insincerity, "Sorry!" you will be hammered by the end of the episode.

Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette)
The late artistic director, Oliver is a washed-up old queen with an eye for the dramatic gesture. Alas, he knows his glory days are behind him - even leaving out the whole "being dead" thing.

Richard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney)
The self-absorbed general manager. When it comes to the theatre, he knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. One could say he has the soul of a bureaucrat, but that would assume he has a soul at all.

Anna Conroy (Susan Coyne)
Anna is the administrative manager and the show's moral backbone, not to mention its nicest person. She holds everything together in the face of disaster - as much as she can, anyway.

Darren Nichols (Don McKellar)
Flamboyant and pretentious, with really scary fashion sense, Darren's University-days friendship with Geoffrey ended with duelling on the quad.

Jack Crew (Luke Kirby) - season 1 plus 2.01
An American movie star who has been contracted to play Hamlet as his first live stage venture. Supposedly based on Keanu Reeves.

Kate McNab (Rachel McAdams) - season 1 plus 2.01
An apprentice with the New Burbage Festival who is understudy for the role of Ophelia and who falls in love with Jack.

Other characters who frequently appear as supporting characters in fic are Frank and Cyril, aging mainstays of the company who function pretty much exactly as Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show; Maria, the irascible stage manager; Nahum, the Nigerian janitor; Claire, the talentless and ditzy actor cast as Ophelia; and Sloan, Ellen's boytoy in S1.

The fandom

IMDB page
All three seasons are available on DVD.

A comprehensive index of fandom-related links is maintained by

isiscolo and

the_acrobat at http://del.icio.us/slingsandarrowslinks. This page links all known fanfiction, fanvideos, and other fan-created resources on the web. A few individual resources are broken out here:

melancholydanes is the lj community for Slings and Arrows. Announcements for S&A-related fanworks and events are also on topic at the due South announcement community

ds_noticeboard.

bjohan57 has created illustrated recaps of the first season episodes plus 2.01 which are linked here.

sdwolfpup is organizing fan-created transcripts here.

And finally, from the season one theme song:

Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition is embarrassing to see
And by, the way you sulky brat, the answer is to be
You're driving poor Ophelia insane --
So shut up (you rogue and peasant)
Grow up (it's most unpleasant)
Cheer up, you melancholy Dane!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay, Slings and Arrows! I'm excited you're rec'ing this!

I am excited too, yay!

I love this show so very very much.

Oh, yay! I've had this show recc'd to me, so I want to see what it's all about. Looking forward to your recs!

Yay! I have to say, though, that although there is some wonderful fanfiction, the show itself beats it all. The writing is amazing, the acting incredible - read the stories, okay, but by all means, see the show, because it is, no joke, the best television I have ever seen.

Oh, I wouldn't say it is the best television I have ever seen but it is certainly, "superior television".

I just finished watching the dvds last week. Being American, I had to get them from the library (and I am still surprised they had them) and did not know the show completed it's run with season three, so the final episode really threw me. Here, I though season 4 would be all about how they put everything back together. Drats!

I am curious what kind of fanfic is out there. I had an idea for a story, but then saw the final episode and that shot my idea all to hell. I'll have to think of a way around the canon roadblock.

If you don;t already have you rec list set, may I suggest a few gen fics. I really hate romances. Shockingly few are done realistically or well - in any fandom.

The delicious links page tags all stories by genre, so you can browse to your heart's content without accidentally encountering any romance.

really??? what the hell would you consider the best then?

Aw, now I have to go back and watch all three seasons again! ;)

A consummation devoutly to be wished!

Ooh, what a good overview! Brevity is, truly, the soul of wit.

Eee, thank you kindly! As tempting as it was to outline the whole series, to be honest, I really want people to watch it for themselves, because it is so fabulous.

Absolutely fanTASTIC show!!!

I just finished watching all 3 season and wow, from once being involved in theatre i felt for each character and their nuttiness. its great to see Canada represented in a show, everything from street names, to revenue Canada.. just great!!!

Hee, yeah, I think everybody who has ever been involved in any aspect of theatre falls in love with the show immediately.

I shamefacedly admit that I am from south of the border, but I fangirl Canada every chance I get.

Hi there! sorry i haven't responded, LJ decided it didn't want to tell me you replied *shakes fist*.. a south of the border gal that loves Canada!!! *high fives you repeatedly* that makes me ridiculously happy :).. got any more rec's?

If you look at the month view (http://community.livejournal.com/crack_van/2007/12/) and do a 'find' on my lj name, you'll find the four recs I've made so far in the fandom. I'm planning at least six more.

awesome! thank you so much for the rec's. I look forward to what else you've got in store :)

I was just rewatching a few of the episodes - Anna really is truly wonderful but there was so much i would have liked to see her say to Richard when he was going through his "reinventing phase"

I lovelovelove your description of Anna. Especially since, if I were doing it, it would go something like: ANNA IS AWESOME. *HEARTS X A BILLION*

I'm verbose that way. *g*

And this is also a good kick to get those transcripts up and running again. We've still got a bunch outstanding, including my second one.

Anna IS awesome! Hey, could you make me an Anna icon with the word "Awesome" on it? If you're not tooooo busy? *puppy eyes*

This is such a wonderful riff off of the Stratford Festival. I've loved S&A fandom from the beginning, just for that alone. And for Paul Gross because who doesn't adore him?

Looking forward to your recs!

Hee, you know, I think in an earlier version of this I had a mention that it was based on Stratford, but that got cut somehow.

And of course everybody adores Paul Gross!

Hooray! Wonderful recap of the show, and I can't wait to see what recs you've got in store for us. I haven't read much S&A fic, and this will be a great chance to catch up on the best in the (teeny)fandom. Thanks for putting all this together!

*dances*

*dies laughing* Wow, OK, I'm just barely finishing due South and as such have never seen Paul Gross in anything else. BUT THAT PICTURE. Let's just say I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything. Hee, I can't wait to look into this series. Thanks for the overview!

Just wait until you get to the episode in which Paul Gross is naked. LA la la.

You mean this naked picture of Paul Gross? *wink*

Mmm. I could look at that ALL DAY.

Without a doubt one of the best, if not the best, television shows I have ever seen.

Well, I think it's the best, but I shall be honest and admit I haven't actually watched much television.

An impressively succinct and highly entertaining overview of this show. This line was so perfectly captured Ellen, that I just had to feedback you: If you take a drink every time she says, with perfect insincerity, "Sorry!" you will be hammered by the end of the episode. Alas, I still haven't seen season 3, so I also appreciated the lack of spoilers too.

I love this series, and am tickled by how many Europeans I've met online that instantly equate Canada with Slings & Arrows. Over-educated and insane, yes that describes most Canadians I know. :-)

Thanks very much! And hee, watching S&A while chatting with other fans, we just went into hysterics over our "drinking game." It is so true!

And you must see S3. It's an astonishingly fitting end to the series, although I warn you, the first time I saw the final episode I cried nonstop during the whole thing. The second time I managed to wait until the last twenty minutes to start crying. It's fabulous and heart-tugging.

I will now approach the 3rd season well armed with Kleenex boxes. :-)

I'm really looking forward to this. I was blown away by (almost all - Hamlet :koff koff:) the acting and the writing on S&A (and when I realised that to a large extent the actors were the writers, my respect for them went through the roof). What little I've seen of fic in this fandom has lived up to the amazing quality of the source materials, so December should make me a very happy little bunny.

Oh, that is so true about the actors and the writers, and the ones who are both. I want to be Susan Coyne. I want to have written this show!

Okay, why haven't I joined this comm before? If anything was gonna do it, the duet of

isiscolo and My Favourite Show would, so here I am. :)

The way I've always pimped its is by using the "Paul Gross is pretty even for him" hook, thereby sucking people in who forget all about why they showed up in the first place, because the whole show is ridiculously good. And, y'know, Paul is pretty even for him.

I second the motion about watching the show as well as reading the fic. This is a show that in essence doesn't need fic, it's that tight and well-done, but then, we don't need chocolate chip scones, either, but the world would be a lesser place without them. The fic for this series is usually almost on par with the show itself in quality.

Really? See I love this show more than anyone should love anything. Really. And my first thought seeing it here was: "Yay! I love this show sooo much!" but then my next thought was: "but it is all there, do I really need to read other people writing it? Does it need it?"

So it is nice to know that what is out there is evidently worth reading. Maybe I will try it.

I totally understand the sentiment. When I first saw the show, I thought, "I don't want to write fic for this show - I want to have written this show!"

But I would say that lots of the fic is worth reading, and a few stories are just so luminously right that they make the experience of the show even better.

*smooches you*

I agree, the show doesn't need fic (and in fact, I feel no great desire to write fic for it - what I've done has been for challenges or for weird ideas of mine) but when it works, it's fantastic. I think it's just such a marvelous universe that we can't resist wanting to be part of it for a little longer.

Thanks, Isis!

Yay yay! Slings and Arrows!

I'm...really curious as to what the fic is like in this fandom, but more for weird personal reasons than anything else. I'm an actor/writer (finishing my last year of theatre school), my mom was an actress who know works behind the scenes at the National Ballet, and my dad is, erm, an Important Theatre Figure on whom one S&A character is based. We lived in Stratford during the summers for years when I was growing up. My first acting role? Was playing baby!Queen Elizabeth in Henry VIII when I was a toddler. My performance professor gets named dropped in the first episode.

It's my life on TV, yo. So now I really want to see what the fic is like!

I'm sorry, but you're simply not allowed to casually drop things like "my dad is, erm, an Important Theatre Figure on whom one S&A character is based." DETAILS, DAMN IT! SPILL!

(Although if he's Darren, you are forgiven for your reticence. :-)

Ahem. I think certain stories will resonate with you more than others. You might particularly get a kick out of the single Claire-centric ficlet - you can search on character tags on the delicious page. There will be a Kate-centric rec later this week that you might like as well.

In general, the fanfiction tends to be more imagery-heavy and vignette-y, not so plotty (which means that I'm going to be misrepresenting the fandom, because I'm a plot-oriented reader). There's a lot of really well-written stuff that just doesn't appeal to me personally, and there really aren't that many stories in the fandom, so I encourage you to poke around - for example, I will be sticking to one rec per author, so if you like a story, read his or her other works.

I think S&A fandom has a large percentage of theatre geeks. I've been involved in our local community theatre forever, including two Shakespeare productions (one of which I was in, the other I was assistant director for) and I grew up in the Washington DC area with parents who had subscriptions to the Folger Shakespeare Theatre. (And in fact I just sent my parents the DVD set as a birthday present!) So you are in good company, here!

Thankfully, Darren is based on nobody in particular. Thankfully, thankfully.

PapaOpalEmber is the partial basis for Basil, the theatre critic. Thank god it's only partial...

I love how as I read the lyrics, I can hear it. (except, somehow, I always end up somehow twisting the lines about killing dad and marrying mum to something like "so what if you uncle was a cad and killed mum to marry dad." I think blame reading way to much slash fic)

That is to say How can someone not love Slings and Arrows? It's pretty and has brilliant lines and, you know, an actual thinky plot.

Your way rhymes better, too. (Although I admit I usually force the rhyme by swapping the killing and marrying clauses altogether, not just their objects.)

And yes! S&A = AWESOME. Everyone must love it!

Curses! Why must December be S&A month at crack_van? In the last few nights, I rewatched all of S2 and most of S1, picked out and read a fair amount of (very good, I must say) fanfic, and now I'm poking around at some fic ideas of my own.

So yes, a show about theatre is eating my brain and my time when I need my brain and my time to...do theatre. The paperwork for my lighting design project is mocking me, I need to choose and prepare a Shakespeare monologue to perform for Monday, and I have to figure out a way to make a stack of books bleed all over the stage (and then be washed out! During intermission!) for a production of an obscure Schiller play that is being directed by...Bertolt Brecht's granddaughter.

Shmeh. At least my "Five Plays Darren Nichols May or May Not Have Directed" story-in-progress will make an excellent Secret Santa present for my friend Alex.

At least my "Five Plays Darren Nichols May or May Not Have Directed" story-in-progress will make an excellent Secret Santa present for my friend Alex.

I would so read that! And don't forget to drop me a link when it's posted, so I can add it to the delicious list.

This is a wonderfully concise overview. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Slings and Arrows: fandom overview

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Slings & Arrows fandom overview

Re: Slings & Arrows fandom overview

Re: Slings & Arrows fandom overview

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject