On Monday, two Santa Barbara City College filmmakers will be flying out to that most famous and illustrious of cinema events, the Cannes Film Festival.
In a combination of talent and luck, along with hard work, Benjamin Golabre and Gabriella “Gabi” Guillen submitted their film to several fests right after it won at this year’s 10-10-10 student competition at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
If there were theater awards for making one’s own professional life difficult, SBCC’s Katie Laris should get some sort of nomination for putting on Nikolai Erdman’s 1928 farce “The Suicide.” When her first choice of a play became unavailable in January, did she look at her schedule and think “let’s fill the small Interim Theater with 18 actors instead, all playing characters with long Russian names?” One wonders.
“The Suicide” is not well-known, even among fans of theater. Banned in its lifetime, resurrected in the 1960s and performed occasionally ever since, Erdman’s play courses the woes of post-revolutionary Russia and a pointed critique of groupthink. It also overflows with a Brueghel-esque cast of characters and/or caricatures. It’s a history piece, no doubt. Is there enough between the lines to sustain a night at the theater?
All Semyon Semyonovich wants is a late-night snack of liverwurst. Yes, he’s duly upset when he realizes his career as a concert tuba player can’t start because he can’t afford the piano to tune it. And yes, he’s been unemployed for a year. Somehow, though, his thoughts turn to suicide, and that’s where his real troubles begin.
Nikolai Erdman’s dark farce “The Suicide” has a history as troubled as its protagonist. Written in 1928, the Soviet author’s play ran afoul of authorities over its subject matter (and cracks against Marx), leading to its decades-long ban. Toeing party line, Erdman never again took on such weighty issues, opting instead to write children’s comedies.