Stratford Festival | Romeo and Juliet… on Facebook!

Posted on 12 February 2013 by Jaclyn

I’m not only a book geek, I’m also a Shakespeare geek, a social media geek (okay: addict) and, to be honest, probably an all around geek. I’m a major fan of the Stratford Festival in general, ever since I saw Colm Feore in Macbeth a few years ago. One of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and that performance made Colm Feore one of my favourite stage actors as well. Plus, I’ll admit it, the disappearing/reappearing Banquo ghost scene really, really freaked me out. (It was happening on stage right in front of me! In real life! With no special camera angle effects! How is it possible???)

Point being, the Stratford Festival impresses me year in and year out. I try to catch at least one play a year, and this year, with the daily bus to and from Toronto (yes!), I look forward to seeing many more.

Still, even before this year’s season begins, I have to applaud Stratford Festival for its innovative use of social media this Valentine’s Day. In the days leading up to Valentine’s, the Stratford Facebook page is posting daily updates on the lives of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. To be honest, Romeo and Juliet has never been one of my favourite Shakespeare plays — overhyped, over-romanticized, and seriously, I always found the ending stupid rather than indicative of true love. Studying it in university made me appreciate it more, but still, give me Hamlet’s soliloquies and Lady Macbeth’s bloodlust any day.

That being said, Romeo and Juliet is the perfect play to play out on Facebook. Can you just imagine a modern day teenage Romeo sending a modern day teenage Juliet a friend request?

Image credit: Stratford Festival Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/StratfordFestival)
Photo credits: Daniel Briere featured as Romeo, and Sara Topham featured as Juliet. Photography by Don Dixon.

Or a Memorial Page being set up for Mercutio? He was, apparently, a very popular guy. (2,606 likes!)

The Shakespeare geek in me is especially thrilled that even while telling Romeo and Juliet’s story through social media, Stratford Festival maintains Shakespearean language, taking direct quotes from the play. I remember learning Shakespeare in high school and finding the language difficult to get into. One option was to translate the words into contemporary English. Never for the big, dramatic soliloquies, of course, but every now and then, it helped to figure out what a character was talking about.

The best trick, I later learned, was to hear it spoken out loud, so my friends and I would try reading out passages to each other. It did help, except of course we also learned that the trick actually required gifted actors to speak the lines. Our mini-recitations formed some fond and amusing high school memories, but I, at least, will never get on the Stratford stage.

Now, of course, I wish we’d had a Shakespeare Facebook stream in high school. By keeping the Shakespearean language, and posting brief snippets alongside social media updates, Stratford Festival succeeds in making the play accessible and contemporary without dumbing it down.

Bravo, Stratford Festival. Bravo.

Watch the story unfold on Facebook – Romeo and Juliet: A Social Summary, and you can view it on stage in Stratford Festival this summer!

And just for that brief moment of happiness before this turns into “never was a story of more woe…”

TIFF Books on Film | TIFF connects booklovers with brilliant cinema!

Posted on 11 February 2013 by Jaclyn

Host Eleanor Wachtel. Photo courtesy of CBC.

Heads up book lovers and film buffs! The Toronto International Film Festival is launching a new Books on Film series tonight, February 11. Hosted by Eleanor Wachtel of CBC’s Writers and Company, this monthly event at TIFF Bell Lightbox features filmmakers and authors in an in-depth discussion about the art of adaptation.

Can a film ever live up to the book? No easy feat, and some booklovers would say it’s impossible. Personally, there are some Poirot adaptations I’ve enjoyed more than the book, thanks to the brilliance of David Suchet. Same with the Dexter Morgan series and, quite possibly, 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

TIFF Books on Film 2013 Schedule:

*All films are on Monday evenings at 7 pm.

February 11— Hilton Als (author and New Yorker theatre critic) on The Innocents

March 4 — Richard Russo (Pulitzer Prize–winning author) on Nobody’s Fool

April 8 — Lisa Cortés (music and film producer, driving force behind success of Def Jam Records) on Precious

May 6 — Christopher Hampton (award-winning screenwriter and playwright) on Atonement (which he adapted to screen)

June 3 — Ted Kotcheff (filmmaker and executive producer of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) on The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

June 24 — Deepa Mehta (Canadian filmmaker) on Midnight’s Children

Which ones am I excited about?

Film still from The Innocents. Photo courtesy of Photofest.

Film still from The Innocents. Photo credit: Photofest

The Innocents is based on one of my favourite horror stories ever — Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. And to have the opportunity to listen to a critic from The New Yorker discuss it — amazing opportunity! Tonight!

Film still from The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Photo courtesy of TIFF Film Reference Library

Film still from The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Photo credit: TIFF Film Reference Library

I love Mordecai Richler, and I remember viewing a clip from Joshua Then and Now in a university Can Lit class. Duddy Kravitz is a classic.

Film still from Atonement. Photo credit: TIFF Film Reference Library

I remember reading this book and feeling absolutely cheated by the ending. Still, I’ve heard good things about the movie, and am definitely interested in seeing it on the big screen.

How to subscribe:

Subscriptions to the series are available for $153 for TIFF Members or $180 for non-members (prices include tax). Based on availability, single tickets may be released closer to the event. Subscriptions are on-sale at tiff.net/subscriptionseries.

Additional bonus for book lovers: The first 100 subscribers will receive a complimentary copy of each book featured, courtesy of Random House Canada.

First film is tonight – The Innocents, based on Henry James’ Turn of the Screw.

Review | People Park, Pasha Malla

Posted on 8 February 2013 by Jaclyn

To celebrate the Silver Jubilee of People Park, the residents hire the illustrationist (as opposed to illusionist) Raven to perform. Unfortunately, Raven’s illustrations turn out to be all too real, and the consequences are much more permanent than the residents predicted.

Pasha Malla’s People Park is a very difficult book to get into, and in fact, I almost gave up halfway through. Malla’s book is ambitious, with a dozen or so narrative threads that never really come together. The various character stories do share the common event of Raven’s illustration — the build up, the actual event, and the fall out — but apart from setting, they seem disjointed. There is a two column character list at the beginning of the book, almost enough characters to populate War and Peace, except none of Malla’s characters are distinct enough to make me care.

To be fair, the story doesn’t seem to be about individual characters, but rather people in so far as they comprise People Park. We see a jumble of characters, arrogantly complacent and eager for Raven’s performance, then turn to panic when the rug is pulled from under them. There is social commentary here, particularly in a scene where Raven quite literally cuts the Mayor down to size and the residents applaud dumbly. The inefficacy of People Park’s political system and law enforcement agency is masterfully portrayed with biting humour. Malla is at his strongest in the political scenes, where we see how much more horrible things are going to get, with the residents absolutely unaware. While Malla resists allegory, there are certainly parallels to the real world, and Malla’s portrayal is harsh, but the harshness feels necessary.

Unfortunately, it’s all just too chaotic. There are too many things being juggled and rather than keep his readers grounded with a single focal point, Malla appears to fling these elements about wildly for his readers to rush around to pick up. The lack of quotation marks definitely didn’t help, particularly when the characters all sound alike. This may be deliberate, a reflection of the chaos already in People Park, whether or not the residents are aware of it. I just found it frustrating. Even when I was able to identify characters, I realized I didn’t really care what happened to them, because they all seemed little more than cogs being moved every which way by Raven’s illustrations. Again, this may be deliberate, but again, it just left me frustrated.

I did almost give it up halfway through, but I’m glad I stuck it out because the second half is better. Or perhaps I was just happy that the residents of People Park finally realize Raven is sinister rather than mere entertainment. To be fair, this may also be a case of myself just not being the right reader for this book. Matthew J. Trafford, for example, in the National Post, found it impressive. Definitely not for me, though.

Thank you to House of Anansi for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Category Archives: Book Review Blog

Stratford Festival | Romeo and Juliet… on Facebook!

TIFF Books on Film | TIFF connects booklovers with brilliant cinema!

Review | People Park, Pasha Malla

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