What better way to celebrate 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons – the fantasy tabletop role-playing game that’s inspired pop culture, moral panics and your local dramatic nerd (it’s me, hi) – than by stepping into its worlds of heroes, villains and on-the-fly dice-counting mathematics while enveloped in the warm hug of live theatre?
Culturally speaking, it’s a good time for D&D: live actual-play shows such as Dimension 20, the jewel in the crown of the indie streaming platform Dropout, are selling out stadium tours. This year’s Oz Comic-Con was awash with custom dice sets and how-to-play sessions, and Dungeons and Dragons the Twenty-Sided Tavern has been running off-Broadway to warm reviews since April and will embark on a US tour in 2025.
It’s easy to understand why this onstage adventuring party has steam – and why it’s travelled all the way to Australia. It’s an uncomplicated and boisterous good time that isn’t afraid to be silly. Our Dungeon Master (William Kasper) introduces us to the world, and the audience votes on which warrior, spellcaster and trickster characters the actors (Atlas Adams, Tribune Dylan Smith and Eleanor Stankiewicz) will be playing that show. The options are too wonderfully ridiculous to be spoiled but expect big choices, dubious accents and charmingly lo-fi props.
From there, The Twenty-Sided Tavern – directed here by Michael Fell, who also oversees the New York production – taps into the game’s close relationship with improv and performance. D&D campaigns are a lot like devised theatre: the Dungeon Master guides players through a story that changes with every character choice (and dice roll) from its players.
To enhance and extend that feeling of creative chance, the production borrows a few tricks from modern technology (the audience plays along on their devices via wifi and QR code) to tell a story where villains must be vanquished and humanity must be saved.
As the adventurers head on their quest, the Dungeon Master and Tavern Keeper (who takes on some of the rules-explaining and game-running of a traditional Dungeon Master, and is delightfully performed by Zoë Harlen, this cast’s secret weapon) grant the audience, at critical moments, chances choose our own unique adventure with the press of a button. We work together as a team of strangers to solve riddles, input options and give the characters we’re aligned with advantage on 20-sided dice rolls.
On opening night, the more chaotic choice of attack or approach always seemed to win and our connection to the drama made every critical success (nailing a 20 on that die) and failure (rolling a one) feel deliciously dramatic. Plus, your outcome affects the following night’s story. Not to get too deep, but it’s never a bad thing to consider, as the show does (gently, with good humour), what world we might make and leave behind for our fellow travellers as we move through it.
This level of interactivity is an introvert’s dream: you can be part of the show without a spotlight and let loose and celebrate, or commiserate in the noise of the crowd. When onstage volunteers are needed, we are given the choice to opt in or out on our devices. Everyone can take part at their own level, as they should: an adventuring party is made up of disparate skills and strengths, and all are needed if we’re going to come out on top. Did we? I can’t say – it might spoil the next show for any of you thinking of picking up a ticket.
Rest assured, this all-are-welcome-here vibe extends to the audience’s knowledge of D&D: those with a love of and appreciation for the game’s lore, rules and tropes will find pleasing jokes and references in the narrative and hidden in the set design but no familiarity with D&D is necessary. The game’s basics and quirks are explained by the cast at the top of the show and as we go along when needed. Plus, laminated sheets on chairs provide a detailed glossary for the curious.
This is a perfect summer activity. Escape the heat, get playful and go along for the ride. It’s like watching nail-biting sports: you’re going to scream for a closeup camera on a dice roll and you’re going to love it. And if it inspires you to start a home game, why not run with that impulse? We all deserve a little more playful adventure in our lives.
• Dungeons & Dragons the Twenty-Sided Tavern is at the Sydney Opera House until 8 March 2025
