Saturday, July 16, 2011

A Busy Season for the Scented Muse


David Zampatti, theater critic for The Western Australian, reports on a new production in Perth called Scent Tales. He says it was “the best-smelling night at the theatre I can ever remember.”

The Edmonton Journal’s Liz Nicholls reviews The Scent of Compulsion, a farce set in 1970, about an American scientist who “creates a fragrance that is literally irresistible.”

The movie Spy Kids 3: Game Over featured 3-D. I took the FirstNerve spawn to see that one in 2003. As far as kids movies go it could have been worse, and the 3-D effects were fun. For the next sequel, director Robert Rodriguez has gone a step further and added smell. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4-D, which opens Augusts 19, features Aromascope: eight smells on a “touch and sniff” card.

In a nod to the classics, "a tutorial given by Ricky Gervais, who speaks for the movie’s robotic dog, will play before the story begins." In 1959, newscaster Chet Huntley demonstrated AromaRama in Behind the Great Wall, and Scent of Mystery audiences were introduced to Smell-O-Vision by a cartoon short. For Polyester, John Waters had “Dr. Arnold Quackenshaw” explicate “the wondrous screen gimmick Odorama” in a prologue.

5 comments:

JoanElaine said...

"The Scent of Compulsion" brings to mind the Roald Dahl story "Bitch". I've always wanted to know what that perfume smelled like!

I would love to get my hands on one of the John Waters scratch and sniff cards - apparently the "dirty sock" was just awful, which for some reason, makes me want to smell it!

EdC said...

Odd, but the review of Scent Tales doesn't mention any smells.

Avery Gilbert said...

JoanElaine:

I still have my Odorama card in the attic somewhere. The bad ones were mildly stinky but combined with the on-screen action they packed a punch.

Avery Gilbert said...

EdC:

The reviewer sort of talked around it, but I get the impression they actually baked a "love cake" during the performance and the audience got to sample afterwards.

Real cooking during a theatrical show has been done quite often over the years.

Mi said...

Hi,

I bumped into this blog. I produced and acted in Scent Tales. We did bake Love Bread during the show which created a smell throughout the theatre. And yes, Avery Gilbert, it has been done before, but it was still a delightfully delicious smell.

One of the special things about theatre that can't be done in film is that we can use smell and it was really fun finding a way to include that in our show.