Fringe at the Movies: Blue Velvet, On Screen and On Stage
Sex, violence, intrigue... and comedy. The Silver Stage premiered its adaptation of David Lynch's dark and surreal mystery Blue Velvet on Canada Day, one of the group's five movie entries in the Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 lineup.
Having seen it, I can report that this is a laugh-a-minute production - both a spoof and tribute to David Lynch's 1986 film. While the original movie is projected in the background, actors are on the Bloor Cinema stage recreating, and often reinterpreting, the on-screen action. This is called "shadow casting".
Finding humour in Blue Velvet's disturbing portrait of corruption in suburban America, the play emphasizes the goofiness of its central character, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan/Anthony Furey). The story begins when he finds a severed human ear in a field near his parent's home, moldy and black in the film, papier-mâché and about a foot long in the stage play.
After reporting the find, Jeffrey befriends Sandy Williams, the daughter of the detective investigating the case (Laura Dern/Emily Armstrong). Curiosity draws him into his own investigation and into the arms of a mysterious and sexy singer, Dorothy Valence (Isabella Rossellini/Jo Fallak).
Before long, Jeffrey gets further involved with Sandy, Dorothy, and a raving psychopath named Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). He uncovers a very twisted world, a seedy underbelly in his community and in himself.
blogTO's own Robin Sharp directs the live theatrical performance portion, including musical interludes, near nudity, and invented subtexts. Without going into any details, I thought the graphic sex and violence in the movie was disturbing, until I saw this take on the cult classic.
Blue Velvet runs again on July 4th and July 9th, taking over the Bloor for the next couple of weeks, along with tried and true shadow casts Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, plus all new shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode "Once More, With Feeling" and, in a curious choice of programming, Jurassic Park (dinosaurs??!).
The Silver Stage runs from July 1st to July 12th at 9:30pm the Bloor. Tickets are $10 and available online or through the Fringe Hotline at 416-966-1062. Photos by Chandra Menard.
Comments (3)
Unfortunately I watched this last weekend. I feel bad for the actors, especially "Jeffrey", as they mainly seemed uncomfortable up there, robotically pantomiming through long stretches of dullness. How could they not? Who thought having amateur actors painfully mime supposedly funny, satirical behaviors would be a good idea while the real cinematic genius of this classic movie played out behind them? Oh, I guess that would have been the director's brilliant idea. Hey Michael Bay! this isn’t Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Jurassic Park - it’s actually a good movie playing in the background. The opening number before the film actually was a good idea and enjoyable. But then the sickening realization that the grade 6 christmas special players were now going to be on stage for the rest of the film sunk in, and it was downhill from there. However, there was one positive that I, and everyone else I spoke to after the show, took away from this: Blue Velvet is even better on the big screen than I remember. In fact, the theatrical disaster occurring with the house lights on in front of it seemed to make the film itself look ten times better. Mr. Bay, if your goal is to someday copy some of the success of Evil Dead: the Musical, you may want to try another line of work. “Embarrassing piece of shit” best describes this production.
Great!! I totally enjoyed the production. I did not enjoy David Lynch's movie, very dark and violent. This show was a fun spoof. I enjoyed the singing and the whole show. Well worth the money, a fun night out!
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