Battleawesome Awesomestar @ Bad Dog
And they don't have a plan.
Much like the writers of the TV show (as has become obvious over the past few seasons, despite past claims to the contrary during the credit sequence), the folks behind its send-up, Battleawesome Awesomestar, have only the haziest idea of how the story will unfold.
"We asked ourselves, 'What would RDM do?" says Rob Norman, quickly slipping into nerd shorthand for Ronald D. Moore, the producer behind the alternately brilliant and infuriating sci-fi reboot which is now partway through its final season.
The answer? Something "pretentious and over-dramatic." And, in this case, an improv. The dour mood and frequent ham-handedness of Battlestar Galactica, to say nothing of its logic-be-damned plot twists, make it ripe for satire, says Norman — even by two of its bigger fans.
He and co-creator Kris Siddiqi take the series about space-faring humans on the run from evil androids "really seriously," he stresses, before going off on a tangent about its best and worst moments. "If we were any more serious we'd be in Algonquin Park LARP-ing right now."
(That's "live-action role-playing" by the way. Big geeky play-dates, in costume.)
Battleawesome Awesomestar is "like making fun of your girlfriend," he explains. "You've been together long enough to know every single mistake. You keep going back because you love her so much."
Siddiqi has gone through something like this before, when he co-created Dreadwood, the hit improv take on the cussin' cowboy series Deadwood, though Norman (My First Crush, Mantown) says the new show is "maybe not as silly" as their other work.
Battleawesome borrows its characters and whisper of a plot — sabotage of the human space fleet by the Cylons — from an early episode of BSG but, from there, it's up to shout-outs from the crowd, plus a clever bit of stunt-casting that will see a random audience member recruited to play Baltar, the confused and possibly insane scientist who is often and unwillingly at the center of the series.
Paul Constable, meanwhile, plays the fleet's weather-beaten Commander Adama, joined by Bad Dog's Marcel St. Pierre as his drunken second-in-command and Ghost Jail's Christy Bruce as tormented tomboy Starbuck. Lisa Merchant, Paul Bates and Carly Jones also star.
The cast prepared by, among other things, practicing with the unique jargon of the BSG universe, which came more naturally to those that had seen the show at least once than to the one person who hadn't.
"Watching Lisa Merchant try to say 'Get off my godsdamned case you frakking skinjob' is one of the most hilarious moments of my life," says Norman.
by SEAN DAVIDSON
Battleawesome Awesomestar. Oct 4, 11, 18, 25. 10pm. $10. Bad Dog Theatre, 138 Danforth. 416-343-0011. www.baddogtheatre.com.