Transitiooooooooon!

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Poor Shprintze and Bielke. Totally overshadowed by their big sisters, most of the time nobody even remembers they exist, let alone their names. While their fates are considerably less rosy in the Sholem Aleichem source material, I like to think that they settled down nicely in New York and continued to cause Tevye mild fatherly headaches with their nontraditional choice of suitors.

This comic is inspired by the  Stratford Festival's 2013 production of Fiddler on the Roof. Now, I've seen Fiddler  more times than I can remember, but I have no hesitation in declaring Scott Wentworth the best Tevye I have ever seen. They've extended their run of Fiddler until October 27. Get your tickets now! And then send me one. 

Curse You, Gravity!

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I've reached a level of rock climbing experience where I can usually see very clearly in my mind what I need to do in order to make a particular move. Unfortunately, I'm also at a level of rock climbing experience where my body often completely refuses to cooperate with my mind's grand plans. Either way, it's massively entertaining.

In other news, I just saw a local screening of the National Theater's recent modern-dress production of Othello . I am not really a fan of either Othello  (apart from the last scene, which is always dynamite) or gratuitous modern dress, but the whole package worked surprisingly well. Also... Emilia. Can we talk about how much I love Emilia in that last scene? I'm going to rewrite Othello  so it ends with Emilia stabbing all these idiotic men in the face and driving off with Desdemona into the sunset, Thelma-and-Louise-style. 

OkQueenMab

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Online dating meets Shakespeare! The possibilities are endless. How would the compatibility algorithm handle Kate and Petruchio? Does Viola's self-summary mention that she likes dressing up as a boy? Have Beatrice and Benedick blocked each other, or are they flirting furiously through private messages? Does Miranda's "Message Me If..." section just say "YOU'RE A MAN"?

This comic is inspired by the  Stratford Festival's 2013 production of Romeo and Juliet . Their season ends this coming week and they're offering $29 tickets for certain performances. Go while you still can! It's a long time till next May.

Boxes of Books

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I work in a library, therefore I must love books, right? Well... there are books and then there are books. Context really is everything.

For the record, I don't have anything personal against Bosnian serials. They are just a convenient stand-in for all the troublesome, hard-to-catalog books with bad or non-existent records that regularly plague our office. (I'm not saying that I don't know people who do actually have vendettas against Bosnian serials, mind you...)

If you must know, my personal nightmare involves the delivery of twelve disintegrating boxes of Vietnamese books. I still get jumpy when I hear the mail cart approaching. 

The Law's the Thing

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Featuring Portia from The Merchant of Venice, another one of Shakespeare's great cross-dressing heroines. I always wondered why Portia, after her triumphant legal victory in the courts of Venice, decided not to pursue a legal career. She was clearly more informed about Venetian law than any of the men in court, and could spot a sneaky, underhanded loophole from a mile away. And we're supposed to believe she goes happily back to Belmont to keep house for that well-meaning damp rag Bassanio? Pssssh.

This comic is inspired by the Stratford Festival's 2013 production of The Merchant of Venice . I've never particularly cared for Merchant  as a play; I'd previously seen two stage productions and one film version, none of which really connected with me. However, the Stratford production, starring Scott Wentworth as Shylock, was phenomenal and, for a self-proclaimed cynic such as myself, surprisingly powerful. If you're within striking distance of Ontario, it closes next week. Get your tickets now!

The Tales of Hoffmann

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I actually can guess what my father's thought process probably was. He had already taken me to see a live performance of Johann Strauss Jr.'s operetta Die Fledermaus , which I had enjoyed, despite falling asleep in Act 3. Logically enough, he assumed I'd also enjoy Jacques Offenbach's operetta The Tales of Hoffmann . What he neglected to take into account is that the former involves champagne, a masked ball, mixed identities and a happy resolution, whereas the latter involves doll dismemberment, death by dueling, death by poison, death by singing too much (not joking) and ends with its protagonist in a drunken stupor, having lost all the women he had ever loved.

27-odd years later and I actually really enjoy The Tales of Hoffmann film. It has absolutely fantastic, proto-psychedelic visuals, the dancing (featuring Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine) is gorgeous, and the special effects, for 1951, are tremendously effective. If you want a really weird-but-fun evening's entertainment, take a look at it.

Something deep inside me still freaks out when I see Robert Helpmann or hear the villains' theme from Hoffmann , though. 

In other news (which I've mentioned already, but for the sake of argument let's still call it news), I've set up a Facebook and Twitter page for this webcomic/blog/thing. Give my fragile, new-blogger ego a boost and like and/or follow me. And then tell all your friends to do the same. That's not obnoxious, is it?