PASSION IN YOUR LIFE

In real life, husband and wife,
Paul Gross and Martha Burns.
Here they play Geoffrey and Ellen
in Slings and Arrows.

I am an extremely passion-filled person. I am intensely alive. And I discovered the television Canadian series Slings and Arrows on Youtube, while catching Paul Gross in another series that I was already familiar with, Due South. I ended up buying both the series on DVD and fell hard for the episode, “Birnam Wood”, because of the scene below. I have not typed the entire scene, so please watch it and you’ll hopefully fall in love with it as I have. The lines that Romeo and Juliet speak are wonderfully interwoven with the back stage conversation.
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Slings and Arrows from Season 2, Episode 6, Birnam Wood


Some of the highlights of this scene:

The major donor to the theatre, Mr. Henderson, has been presented a gift just before the evening’s play and has decided to speak to the audience:

….on a personal note, just like to say how ‘specially moved I am to be here tonight. Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest love stories ever told and one that has special meaning for my wife Carol and me. You see, we’ve been married for 37 years. And in all that time, I don’t think we’ve ever missed a production of this play…that we could get to. Carol can’t be here tonight. She’s in hospital recovering from heart surgery. She’s going to be all right, the doctors tell me. But you know, when I think of all the times that we nearly gave up on each other, I get kind of shaky. I wasn’t much of a husband there for awhile. I’ll tell you that for free. But an experience like this ~ it teaches you something about the power of love. It certainly does. Well….enjoy (the show).

The production of Romeo and Juliet is going on while this dialogue is interspersed with the play’s dialogue:

Ellen: I hate this play
Geoffrey: Yeah

….Romeo to Juliet: My life were better ended by their hate, than death prolong it, wanting of thy love….

Ellen: You watch and feel miserable, if you don’t have that kind of passion in your life. Nobody does. It’s a fantasy. It’s irresponsible.

Geoffrey: Yeah
You know what I think. It’s painfully accurate. Two
idiots meet. They fall in love. They’re happy. Briefly.
Then, all hell breaks loose. Happens all the time.

…..Juliet to Romeo: ….sea, my love as deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have for both…are infinite.

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The Water is Wide with images of Ireland to the tenor voice of Michel Londra.