Audacious Theatre's Space Conflicts Parodies Star Wars for May the 4th

Star Wars has been a part of Rebecca Gorman O'Neill's life for as long as she can remember. "My earliest memory is of my parents taking me to see A New Hope at a drive-in theater," O'Neill says. "I remember thinking the droids were funny, Chewbacca was scary, and then, because I was a kid and it was late, I went to sleep. Star Wars is one of my very first memories of life, and the franchise has really stuck with me."

This year, in honor of Star Wars Day on Thursday, May 4, O'Neill, a local playwright and professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has collaborated with Audacious Theatre to create Space Conflicts: May the Farce Be With You, which will be performed at Left Hand Brewing on May 4 and Fiction Beer Company on May 5 and 6.

The show is a witty sci-fi parody that lovingly pokes fun at the entire Star Wars franchise. Audiences will travel to the outer reaches of the galaxy, where they'll encounter space magic, self-aware robots and soap opera-level conflict. Using Audacious Theatre's signature blend of immersive elements, patrons will be able to become part of their ultimate sci-fi fantasies.
The theater company has been creating collaborative, innovative experiences — including immersive works about Dungeons & Dragons and female killers from history — in the Denver area since 2016. Space Conflicts is its first show of 2023 and is based on its annual holiday show, Drunk Christmas, which is a condensed parody with interactive goodie bags and call-outs in the style of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

"I have been doing Audacious for several years now, including every Drunk Christmas, and I've been talking about wanting to direct a show for a while now," says Joey Laughlin, the director of Space Conflicts. "Last fall, I assistant-directed Project 7 Sins with Logan Custer, which Rebecca also wrote, and it went really well. Ren [Manley, Audacious Theatre's artistic director] approached me to direct a Star Wars parody, and I thought it was a great idea. I'm a big fan of silliness, and [Star Wars] is the perfect franchise to use, because it has been able to bridge generational gaps and is still beloved by so many people."

When O'Neill was brought into an Audacious team meeting and pitched the idea of a Star Wars trunk show, she was hooked. "They turned to me and asked if I would write it," she says, "and I immediately said I would." Already a big fan of the franchise, O'Neill took time while she was in Europe for work to revisit the films in her hotel room.

"I knew all the movies, of course, and am a big fan of The Mandalorian," says O'Neill. "My school sent me to Europe in February, and I just had the movies playing in the background of my hotel room in a constant circle while I sat down and wrote out the play. I threw everything into the show that I could think of. Space Conflicts parodies the movies as a unit but focuses on A New Hope. I call out all the plot holes and have fun with the inconsistencies that George Lucas patched up in later editions. I immersed myself in the movies and then used my knowledge of all the peripheral stuff from the expanded universe to start writing."

The show blasts through the events of Episodes 1, 2 and 3 (also known as the prequel trilogy) as quickly as possible to get to A New Hope. "The prequel and new sequel trilogy are performed in the style of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]," says Laughlin. "There are five people in the cast, and they play all the characters in the three main trilogies plus some surprises from other sci-fi series and other stories that involved a hero's journey. 
"The show is in many ways a surprising traditional farce," he continues, "which makes it very accessible. There are a lot of misunderstandings, because for some reason, the mentor character doesn’t want to tell anyone else about what happened in the prequels; characters are constantly sneaking around; and crazy misunderstandings arise because there are two people who don’t know they are siblings. What I enjoy about Space Conflicts is how the script pokes fun at the franchise while also showing a sincere love for the series that has touched so many people and what it means to us."

Along with the physical and situational humor, O'Neill's script also finds humor in creative workarounds for trademarked properties. "We lean into the legal distinctions," says O'Neill. "For example, it’s Space Conflicts, not Star Wars. The weapons are not lightsabers; they are light swords. There are tons of references to the movies and television series that fans of the series are going to really enjoy." 

Along with the jokes, audience members are able to opt in or out of interactions with the actors during the performance. This includes shouting out lines from the movie at various points (such as "I have a bad feeling about this" and "It's a trap!") and purchasing interactive goodie bags with silly props to heighten the fun. 

"As with all Audacious shows, we include an immersive element that makes the experience even more fun," says Laughlin. "The program includes instructions about when to engage; any time the helmeted bad guy character enters, we want the audience to make breathing noises, and other really silly things like that. It's similar to the spirit of Drunk Christmas, in which lines are delivered directly to the audience. It gets rowdy, and you get to participate."
Although the actors won't be drinking, as they do in Drunk Christmas, the audience is more than welcome to. "Since we are performing in bars, we encourage attendees to support Left Hand Brewing and Fiction Beer Company and grab a drink while they enjoy the performance," says Laughlin. "A lot of the show's appeal comes from the cross-generational love of Star Wars, so we didn't want drinking to get in the way of the story. But don’t worry, there will be plenty of bumbling around and craziness happening on stage even without the actors drinking."

O'Neill has gotten the chance to watch a few rehearsals and was impressed with the work the creative team has done bringing Space Conflicts to life. 

"I had a blast writing it, and have had so much fun seeing what Joey and the cast have done with this crazy script," says O'Neill. "When I first gave the script to Joey, I said, 'I don't know how you’ll pull this off, but here you go!' However, after seeing how committed the actors are and how much fun the design team has had with the costumes and props, I think people are going to enjoy themselves.

"You aren’t going to see anything like Space Conflicts anywhere else other than at Audacious Theatre," she continues, "and I think whether you know a little or a lot about Star Wars, you'll enjoy it. The franchise is so embedded in the cultural consciousness that even if you haven’t seen it, you know enough to laugh at it, and the farce element is just terribly fun."

Space Conflicts: May the Farce Be With You runs at Left Hand Brewing on May 4 and Fiction Beer Company on May 5 and 6. Find tickets, times and more information at audacioustheatre.com.