Slings & Arrows – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 3 – 2 0 0 6 (Canada)
18 x 60 minute episodes

Created by stage actors Susan Coyne and Bob Martin, with former Kids in the Hall star Mark McKinney, this finely judged and occasionally moving comedy presented the politics and lunacy surrounding a Shakespearean stage troupe in the (fictional) Canadian town of New Burbage.

Actor and Artistic Director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) was recovering from a very public mental breakdown and couldn’t escape the ghost of his deceased mentor, director Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette).

Other key characters included the passive-aggressive actress Ellen Fanshaw (Martha Burns), who is Tennant’s on-and-off lover; Richard Smith-Jones (Mark McKinney), the shallow Executive Director of the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival; Associate Executive Director Anna Conroy (Susan Coyne), and the young hopeful actress Kate McNab (Rachel McAdams).

Through three seasons, the series followed the cast through productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear.

Despite initial critical misgivings that the show might not appeal to anyone outside Ontario – the site of the annual Shakespeare-oriented ‘Stratford Festival’ – Slings & Arrows proved a smash hit.

Geoffrey Tennant
Paul Gross
Oliver Welles
Stephen Ouimette
Ellen Fanshaw
Martha Burns
Anna Conroy
Susan Coyne
Darren Nichols
Don McKellar
Richard Smith-Jones
Mark McKinney
Kate McNab
Rachel McAdams
Jerry
Oliver Dennis
Cyril
Graham Harley
Frank
Michael Polley
Maria
Catherine Fitch
Brian
Leon Pownall
Nahum
Rothaford Gray
Basil
Seán Cullen
Sloan
Matt Fitzgerald
Jack Crew
Luke Kirby