This six-episode Canadian miniseries will be running on the Sundance Channel over the next few weeks, and if the first episode is any indication, it's going to be great fun.
It's a backstage drama set at the New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean theater company that is beginning to show signs of aging poorly. Artistic director Oliver has been around so long -- this year's opening production is his tenth Midsummer Night's Dream -- that he's barely able to go through the motions; no one dares tell the company's longtime leading lady that it's time for her to graduate from Ophelia to Gertrude; there's a brainless Hollywood hunk coming in to play Hamlet; and general manager Richard is fighting to keep the company afloat financially.
Across town, we meet Geoffrey, who was once a star at the New Burbage, delivering the most brilliant Hamlet the town had ever seen, but is now on the comeback trail after suffering some sort of nervous breakdown; his own small theater company has just been evicted for failure to pay the rent. The ending of the first episode suggests that Geoffrey will soon be returning to the New Burbage, where he will no doubt be haunted by the ghosts of his past.
The cast includes some of Canada's best actors -- Paul Gross (Geoffrey), Mark McKinney (Richard), Stephen Ouimette (Oliver) -- and Rachel McAdams, a quickly rising Hollywood star these days, has a supporting role as the company's ingenue; Gross and McAdams both won Gemini Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy) for their work.
New episodes will air on Sunday nights, with several reruns during the week. Well worth your time.
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