The Cast Photo by Kyle A. Thomas

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is one of the most engaging, exciting, and entertaining nights of theatre Chicago audiences can experience–all because of the unique format for the show. Combining aspects of long-form improv, immersive theatre, and a spectacle-driven staging typical of Broadway musicals, The Twenty-Sided Tavern is a delightful romp across the world of the game and how it's played. Don't worry, you don't need to know anything about Dungeons & Dragons (or, just D&D) to have an enjoyable evening. The rules and mechanics for D&D are helpfully incorporated into the overarching structure of each night's show. The down-for-anything DM (Dungeon Master), Conner Marx, and devilishly witty Tavern Keeper (essentially a live-action gameplay engineer), Alex Stompoly, make for our expert duo of docents, aiding the audience as we work our way through the gameplay of D&D, artfully working in information about the rules and mechanics of the game, choices available to the players, and–of course–the underlying story that drives the action. But the engaging center of The Twenty-Sided Tavern begins and ends with Marx and Stompoly. They set the tone for a playful night of success in camaraderie.

The story is set in the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons, a campaign setting taken directly from the game. At the top of the show, we meet our three heroes who will play us through the awaiting challenges and quests which make up the core gameplay of D&D. The three players are different for each show, with an additional layer of characterization chosen by the audience. Each player presents us with a choice between three fantastical characters they could play for the evening. On the night of attendance, Madelyn Murphy, Diego F. Salinas, and Anjali Bhimani brought their fantastic character-creating, improvisational, and physical acting abilities to their characters chosen by the audience and significantly enhanced the world of the game. They exist simultaneously between the game, the show, and us. At times, they embody their characters, imbuing them with vocal characteristics, physicality, and underlying motivations that shape their decisions. At other times, they slip out of character into their roles as players and work with the audience to decide upon the next course of action. Murphy is especially adept at moving fluidly between the game, the theatre, and the immediacy of a live performance with her ability to effortlessly shift the semiotics of each character's physicality. Bhimani displays fantastic command of the small, interpersonal details of characters and can at once raise the audience to their feet and then turn around to give a seriously empathic vocal interpretation for a half-eaten Chicago hot dog named Glizzie McGuire (something specific to that night's improvisational work).

Through the mechanics of Gamiotics–an online platform developed by David Carpenter which allows audience members to affect the gameplay–the players relinquish their agency within the story and place their characters' decision-making power in the hands of the collected strangers in the house. Other aspects of each character's arc, like whether they succeed or fail at an action (or even if they die during a battle), are also determined by mini-games played by the audience through the Gamiotics platform.

The overall experience is one that places the audience directly in the action of both the game and the show. In fact, each operates in parallel with the other: the gameplay provides a functional storytelling format that is highly performative, while the theatrical show relies on performer-audience interactions which determine how the characters navigate the game. It makes for one of the most unique theatrical experiences audiences will ever experience. Moreover, Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is an exercise in twenty-first century theatre, where audiences are involved and immersed in the story through the expert guidance of the onstage crew while also utilizing mobile technology to facilitate the immersion in ways that make for manageable interactions on the part of the performers. This particular production makes for a promising glance into the kind of theatre that could be in our current age of technological interaction, if only we would seek out better ways to throw off the model of a theatre that prefers singular, solitary, and highly curated individual affects upon one audience member at a time (a model that is only as old as the earliest dimly lit gas and electrical theaters of the nineteenth century). Furthermore, the layered aspect of the production–game, theatre, reality–mirrors the layered ways in which we live our everyday lives. We seamlessly navigate between the games we play for work or fun, the performances we make for social media, and the challenging realities that constantly puncture those layers to remind us of the stakes in life.

Dungeons & Dragons found its initial cultural foothold in the suburban basements of American teenagers in the 1970s. Alongside the rise of metal music and campy horror movies in the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons found itself in the crosshairs of groups fighting the so-called "Satanic Panic." Nowadays, the fantasy role-playing game's reputation no longer presents a threat to the moral fabric of young and impressionable minds. Rather, D&D is celebrated as an enjoyable means for building confidence, critical-thinking, creativity, and camaraderie amongst young and old players alike. D&D's significance in American culture centers on how improvisational gameplay activates problem-solving skills in the moment, requiring players to negotiate with one another while they encounter a world of people in need of help or justice. D&D has moved into online Zoom rooms of the 2020s to infect the conventions we have come to love and enjoy when attending a night of theatre.

Taking from its table-top role-playing foundations, Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern presents a theatrical experience for a new generation. It is theatre we should embrace not only as entertaining but as a modern representation of moral storytelling, where the decisions of one player will have an effect on a multitude of others; where poor decisions must still be reckoned with; where a player's seemingly singular win is really a result of the whole group's efforts; and where caring about others, working together, and improbable wins are all integral experiences born of the character-creation, decision-making, and help for one another. Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is ruining theatre as we know it, and that's a good thing!

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is highly recommended. As the show has the chance that it will create improvisational humor from adult references, it's best for families with children over ten. But, it is certainly a great show for families, couples, and groups who play D&D together.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern runs through September 28, 2025, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E Chestnut St, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.broadwayinchicago.com.