It’s probably just a function of Spoleto’s institutional branding, but when you looked at the materials for 1927’s Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, did you not get the sense that the production was some sort of experimental, edgy theater piece? Funny, certainly, but perhaps with some added bit of theatrical gravitas?

An ingeniously dark and peculiar blend of fairytale and silent - movie homage where live performance effortlessly merges with pre-recorded film, London-based cabaret company 1927’s Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a wonderfully surreal journey through a variety of skewed and often sinister landscapes.

Yep. Kinda vague, but definitely leaning toward the gravitas.

Here’s a shorter definition of what Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea really was (sadly, it’s gone already): A comedy. As in it was funny, it was intended to make us laugh, and it succeeded, over and over.

The reason that you might struggle to make that critical diagnosis is that it’s so inventively, darkly, wickedly funny that it doesn’t act like a comedy, with all the goofball conventions that automatically identify comedy as lowbrow and fun and a little embarrassing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cecil Wilson apparently has nothing better to do than attend Spoleto events and be inspired to write about them. Oh, wait. Neither do I …

Here are his latest Spokus:

The monkey’s journey
into the deep sea was cool,
but, then went awry.

Blacklocke House Party!
I trust Valerie will not
run out of champagne!

Applause at the wrong
time during the performance
was embarassing.

SPOLETINIS are
being served before Boston
Ballet at my house.

Do send yours to us: SpoletoToday@postandcourier.com

Geoff and Janet, fresh from their appearance on Lowcountry Live on WCIV-TV ABC News 4,  talk about life so far at SpoletoToday.com. Today’s special guest is Enrique Graf, artist-in-residence at the College of Charleston, who gets us up to speed on the Young Artists Series for Piccolo Spoleto. Good stuff in here

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

At the Spoleto Festival USA annual spring board meeting on Monday, the news was not so bright, the festival will end in a nearly $300,000 deficit. This was due to factors beyond the festival’s control, like: the poor economy, the fact the dollar is horribly weak and the plethora of foreign actors (coming from every continent except Australia and Antarctica) have to be paid up front, and the cost of plane tickets has skyrocketed.

Nigel Redden defended his selection of “Monkey: Journey to the West” which cost $1.2 million to stage as opposed to its 2007 counterpart, “The Constant Wife” staged by Ireland’s Gate Theatre, which cost around $300,000. In fact, The Gate Theatre was supposed to do “Sweeney Todd” but backed out after the deal had been made.

Covering the meeting for the first time was New York Times reporter Dan Wakin, who was the only other reporter in the room besides moi. After the meeting, Wakin could be heard grilling Nigel about the amount of money spent on “Monkey…”

Read The Post and Courier story.

When we covered Spoleto last year, we got invited onto a local radio show to talk about our blog coverage. And I just about remembered to take my video camera along and record some of it, just for … well, just because I could really. [Last years video]

As we’ve stepped up our game this year blog-wise, and my video camera seems to be surgically attached to my body, it seemed almost rude not to use it when we moved up from being on the radio to being on TV to talk about and plug SpoletoToday.com

So yes, I confess - this is self indulgent - but fun too, as Janet and me were on ABC this morning on LowCountryLive, to talk about, er - this site!

In case you can’t hear it (the audio is not the best - I left my camera running on a chair about 20 feet away!) we’re talking about the video contest we’re running, and your chance to win $200 for making a video of your own about this years Spoleto and Piccolo festivals. See Janet’s earlier post for the full details.