The HBO show Game of Thrones (just in case you’ve been living on the moon for the last few years and don’t know this) is a lusciously seductive and shockingly violent TV series based on a set of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin. Beat asks the creative entrepreneur about what it’s like to put even more skin into an already sex-saturated show. For a start, weren’t there any copyright issues involved? “HBO is very appreciative of what we do,” says Beattie. “They’ve supported us in lots of ways. They appreciate the fandom. We helped them launch season four; they had some performers who hired our costumes.” Dames of Throne sold out in Sydney earlier in the year after which the team had a break while new characters were incorporated.
Dames of Throne includes performers who are actors, singers, musicians and dancers and as well local artists hired when the show hits the major cities, who perform live songs, burlesque and acrobatics. The performers need to come as close as possible to the TV characters as fans of Game of Thrones are serious and possessive about the stories and personalities and feel a great sense of ownership over the whole shebang; there must be massive and scary challenges for Beattie in putting together a show with characters so beloved? “The challenge is in the amount of characters,” Beattie replies. “And there are always new ones being introduced. We have to update the show. People have their favourites. They get killed off in the TV show and we do kill them off in our show but not in that way. We have live ones and dead ones.”
Does the inspiration for Dames of Throne come more from the books or the TV show? “Definitely more from the TV show,” answers Beattie. “There are certain things in the books that don’t happen in the TV show. We have a cast of 20 playing about 45 characters. The characters are so well-known and we want to help people believe in what they’re seeing.” But Game of Thrones isn’t easy viewing. How do you make it light yet in keeping with the sometimes grisly nature of the TV episodes? “Viewers can expect a healthy combination of sex and gore, all the while retaining the high level of detail the show is renowned for. But I keep the spirit of burlesque in there,” continues Beattie, as he talks about bringing Westeros to The Arts Centre. “With our other shows, for example, The Empire Strips Back, making them sexy was easy. But with Dames of Throne, we have had to take everything up a notch. There’s sexy, there’s skin. In some ways it’s like an old vaudeville show. And the characters are so theatrical. People are so obsessive about the show. You can poke fun at it but only if you get it right. We are making fun of the whole experience of fans’ obsessiveness – it’s a roller coaster. The closer you get to the characters the more believable it becomes. We have a variety of bodies on stage – when you’ve got characters like The Mountain and The Hound and Tyrion, you’ve got to get performers that look right so they are all the appropriate size. We have tall, short, thin, round…it’s all very theatrical and over the top.”
How on earth do you make fun out of something like The Red Wedding? This infamous event traumatises viewers. “I find the humour in it,” says Beattie. “We have the Caitlin Stark character refusing to die; she just keeps singing and bleeding and singing. There are some very funny moments but for our performers it’s all about playing their part as the characters are so well known.” Something must be working as Beattie tells us his performers are treated like rock stars after the show, they get a bit mobbed and are even approached for autographs. There has got to be a word for this sort of post-modern layering happening here, when you have performers parodying TV characters who come originally from a book. “People extend their love for the characters and throw it onto the performers,’ says Beattie. “This has been our fastest selling shows ever; the love for these characters is incredible.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
