Tabletop role-playing nerds, rejoice! You’re spoiled for choice this Fringe, and Tabletop Role-Playing Game: The Musical by The Natural Ones at C Arts C aquila (temple) has any gaming reference you could hope for, set to a lovely tune.
Five adventurers and their GM (Game Master, Stephen Blanchard) gather around the table and continue their misadventures through a fantastical realm. Princess Shantay (Sreya Rao), Crush Spilkington (Mollie Iwanczak), Dave (and Steve) Morrisey (Joel Williams), Arani Nimbletouch (Nicki Rochford), and Creto the Majestic (Dan Heaney) hit the Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and numerous other fantasy gaming realm high notes, including looting bodies, running down the stereotypes of all the ‘races’ and ‘classes’, stumbling into magic portals and, unlike so many D&D games, fighting a dragon. The show bounces between ‘reality’, or table talk, and in-character fantasy, though the play never has the performers out of their role-playing characters for very long. This is a delightful reference to how much tabletop role-players can attach to their characters and begin to identify with them, as games can often span numerous sessions over months or years, with players becoming close friends.
There are more personal notes that cross the realm from reality into fantasy as well, including a player complaining that no one is playing the game right, so they aren’t having fun anymore. Rather than shame or dismiss them, the group rallies around the sad player and encourages them to simply play the game their way.
The six performers sing very well and certainly embody their characters, both the fantasy realm character and the human behind it. There are no dramatic lighting or costume switches between these worlds, there’s no set aside from some chairs, and there are occasional handcrafted puppets and masks to indicate new characters, alongside the GM’s dialect work, which is purposefully bad. The most extravagant special effect they have is a fog machine, all of which is quite in keeping with the homebrewed worlds filled in with players’ imaginations.
The group did seem a little low energy on the day I attended, and some performers did not seem as well rehearsed as others. That said, it is an enjoyable show, particularly for the geeky and nerdy among us. With only a few days left of Fringe, do spend an afternoon with The Natural Ones’ Tabletop Role-Playing Game: The Musical at C Arts C aquila (temple).
Listings and ticket information can be found here
