ED FRINGE 2023 REVIEW | Character Building Experience
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Reviewer - Jordan
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
I had the absolute joy to watch Sasha Ellen’s Character Building Experience, Sasha is a talented comedian, actor, writer and professional DM and her show, Character Building Experience, is a great introduction to those unfamiliar with tabletop top role-playing games to see first hand just how quickly they become unhinged ramblings as opposed to controlled, linear narratives.
This, of course, isn’t entirely the fault of Sasha, but as usual, the blame lies at the feet of her players, in this case, a cast of fantastic comedians and actors who take great joy in doing anything but actually progress the story where possible.
Sasha and her cast take us on a short, self-contained adventure through the medium of (a rules light) Dungeons and Dragons game where the focus is very much on improv, comedy and storytelling as opposed to dice rolling. In fact, there is only one dice in use and it is rolled by Sasha to determine the outcomes of any given action. From what I understand as well, the story presented by Sasha is different for each show (which is no mean feat with a new show each day) and while the narrative is simple, it is still structured and interesting, highlighting her talent as a writer and the casts as improvisers.
A massively enjoyable microcosm of the D&D experience as the DM struggles in vain against the whims of their players who ultimately tell the best story possible because it’s the one they created as a group. You can tell the cast is genuinely enjoying the show as well, which makes it easy to sit back and be immersed in the chaos. My only complaint is that I could have watched them for another 2 hours, so I’ll just have to try and catch the show again.
A fantastic show for both those familiar or otherwise with D&D, check it out if you can.
At Laughing Horse @ The Counting House until 27 August.
