Slings and Arrows: Oliver's Dream

Slings and Arrows: Oliver's Dream
Movie Central
3 November 2003
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Recurring cast:

• Aaron Abrams as Paul
• Marcia Bennett as May Silverstone
• Jeff Berg as Luke
• Martha Burns as Ellen Fanshaw
• Seán Cullen as Basil
• Series co-writer Susan Coyne as Anna Conroy
• Oliver Dennis as Jerry
• Catherine Fitch as Maria
• Caroline Gillis as Cheryl
• Rothaford Gray as Nahum
• Sabrina Grdevich as Claire Donner
• Paul Gross as Geoffrey Tennant
• Graham Harley as Cyril
• Jennifer Irwin as Holly Day
• Rachel McAdams as Kate McNab (a much sweeter character than Regina George in the next year's hit movie Mean Girls)
• Series co-writer Mark McKinney as Richard Smith-Jones
• Stephen Ouimette as Oliver Welles
• Michael Polley as Frank
• Leon Pownall as Brian
• Alan Rosenthal as Minister of Culture's Husband
• Maya Toman as Minister of Culture

Also, Malcolm Xerxes is Oberon here but two years later would be a Choreographer, while Lisa Lambert is Ellen's Dresser and would later play a Wardrobe Cutter.

Bob Martin is the third co-writer  and he, too, would have a role later, although a much smaller one than Coyne and McKinney.  This is a roughly 45-minute sitcom, with lots of threads, so I can see why they needed three writers.  I was able to sort out the main characters and relationships pretty well within that time, including the backstory for three of the older characters.  I liked what I saw and I can see the potential in this, with both backstage and onstage drama, although played with a wry touch.  The series title comes of course from Shakespeare, and the troupe here performs A Midsummer Night's Dream, which we get glimpses of.

Peter Wellington would direct all three seasons.