Mini Shakespeare film fest spans Bard on the Beach and Argentine director Matías Piñeiro at VIFF Centre, starting August 27
Don’t expect straight-up adaptations as Done/Undone, Isabella, and more screen in-person and online
Bard on the Beach’s Done/Undone.
Argentina’s Isabella.
VIFF screens Done/Undone on August 30 and 31 with Bard on the Beach and Isabella from August 27 to September 2 at VIFF Centre’s Vancity Theatre. VIFF Connect streams its Bard in Buenos Aires series’ Viola and The Princess of France from August 27 to September 23.
FRESH TAKES on Shakespeare fill VIFF screens and streaming programs in the coming week—and in no way could you describe any of the offerings as a straight-up “adaptation”.
On the locally made front, Bard on the Beach’s new film Done/Undone—written by that Shakespearean company’s alumna Kate Besworth and directed by Arthi Chandra—gets its only in-person screenings at the Vancity Theatre on August 30 and 31, with special guests in attendance. In the production, actors Charlie Gallant and Harveen Sandhu bring multiple characters to life, voicing an array of perspectives on the relevance of Shakespeare when it comes to issues like race and gender. (We interviewed Besworth about the show here.) It’s smart, thought-provoking, and perfectly suited to a time of seismic social shifts.
Elsewhere, head south with VIFF’s Bard in Buenos Aires series, and the structurally daring, visually vivid works of Argentine auteur Matías Piñeiro. Catch a live screening of his latest Shakespearean comedy Isabella, focusing on an actor who longs to star in Measure for Measure, but has to solve her money problems before she can audition.
Follow up at home with a few of his other postmodern comedic essays, streaming online via VIFF Connect: Viola and The Princess of France. Viola, from 2013, revolves around an all-female theatrical production and the stage depiction of Twelfth Night’s courtship between Olivia and Viola; then it follows the actors, and the themes around love, into the dressing room and out into the real world. In 2014's The Princess, a director reunites the cast members from his Love’s Labour’s Lost for a radio play, and reignites the romantic tensions between them.
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