Die-Nasty wraps Game of Thrones homage
One million idiots put their name on a petition demanding that Game of Thrones producers remake the last season – prompting an instant backlash: “Hey, if you’re so smart, then you do it!”
The Die-Nasty live improvised soap opera is way ahead of the game: Since mid-October every Monday at the Varscona Theatre their theme has been “Lord of Thrones.” The season finale happens Monday, May 27 at 7:30 pm. Spoilers are moot. The actors literally don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens.
Here’s the story they came up with so far – as told by company director Vincent Forcier:
[Insert sinister theme music]
In the “Land of Pretenderos,” there was a terrible war where the Strathconians almost wiped out the Calgarians, leaving a few survivors who bided their time and hatched dragons. The dragon is played by a dog who isn’t aware he’s improvising.
Meanwhile we have feuding families: Including the Park Family (from Sherwood Park), and the Minsters, with the brothers Lloyd, Boyd and Floyd Minster. There’s a wedding between Lloyd’s daughter Margo and the son of Lord Strathconian, after which the bride kills the groom and assumes the throne. Then she gets killed, as does her successor, and so on. Forcier says, “It started to become this thing that anyone who gets the throne gets killed.” The body count currently stands around 50.
Enter the undead invaders who break through the “fourth wall,” led by He Who Has No Name, “but also my name is Steve” – which turns out to be Mark Meer in his wicked “Night King” costume (the actor has top-level cosplay connections). The warring tribes cooperate to defeat Steve and the “White-As Walkers,” after which Karen Johnson Diamond Calgarian is crowned Queen – and is immediately killed.
There it stands, all poised for the finale.
Remember this is all being made up on the spot. The cast is a rotating who’s who of Edmonton improv talent – including Jeff Haslam, Kristi Hanson and Paul Morgan Donald on music. They are all are very familiar with the source material. It falls to the director to rein in the chaos and shape the story – mainly by invoking the supreme power of cutting the lights and cueing the music at the perfect time: Usually after a good punch-line, a twist, or even just before someone is about to get killed so you can “save” the character for a future scene. And kill them again.
Not Night King – ‘my name is Steve.’ (Mark Meer)
There’s been a healthier turn-out for the weekly Die-Nasty shows this season, Forcier says, thanks to GoT popularity. They get a few nerds “curious if we’re just doing a carbon copy of the show with jokes – but we’re trying to create our own story here. I think we’ve been doing a good job this year of juggling all the characters and storylines.”
Asked if he can reveal any spoilers in the season finale – and me expecting the answer, “Of course not, you idiot, it’s improvised!” – Forcier says, “Actually, that’s interesting. The only thing I do know is that there’s going to be more bloodbaths. It’s the last one. Also I can’t control these actors on stage – they keep killing each other.”
