EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Adventurers Wanted

About the show:

Watch the most ambitious tabletop role-playing game ever attempted: an improvised epic brought to life over a whole month. Experience live storytelling at its most legendary in a fun and informal setting. Adventurers Wanted is designed to be accessible - whether you've played role-playing games before, or have no idea what they are, the adventure is open to all to watch and play. What happens is down to the players: there's no way of knowing where the adventure will end up, but it's guaranteed to be unlike anything else at the Fringe!

Why bring it to Edinburgh?

Where else could you stage a 250 hour long epic game, with space for up to 1000 players? For me, Edinburgh is about ridiculous, ambitious, inventive ideas that you simply wouldn't see elsewhere, and that's why it feels like the perfect fit for such an outlandish show as this. We're not doing things by halves with this show, so it makes sense to do it at the world's biggest arts festival.

I've come to Edinburgh eight times as an audience member, to hunt out the strangest and most unexpected shows that I can, and have always wanted to bring something to the festival - but it's such intense hard work to do so that I've not wanted to bring a show to Edinburgh unless it excites me beyond belief and makes all that hard work worth it - and Adventurers Wanted is that show!

What sets it apart from other shows at the Fringe?

Where to even start! We've no way of knowing the story we're actually going to end up telling, everything will be determined by the choices of the players, the people you'll see onstage aren't performers but people who simply want to have fun playing a game, and the atmosphere will be like going round a friend's house rather than sitting in the dark, watching something happen separate to you. Also, unlike other shows: if you want to get involved and help create the story yourself, you can!

Whilst other shows have stories to tell or scripts to get through, our Game Masters have created a world to explore, which is what'll be happening in the game. The scale and scope of what we're doing is really different - not only is it an utterly fantastical world, but it's a 250 hour long story, there's no way what we're doing could be squeezed into an hour-long slot! There'll be people onstage every hour who've simply bought a ticket to do so - which normally makes for something a bit more unpredictable, but all the more fascinating to watch. You get to see people actually grappling with decisions, genuinely torn over what to do, rather than pre-planned performances.

Above all though, I think what'll be really different is the atmosphere in the room. What we're doing is very much 'come and have fun with us', not 'come and watch us' - all the performances are relaxed ones, which means the audience aren't sat in the dark, and they can move or make noise if they need to. It's much more like being invited round to a friend's to play a game (or watch a game!), than anything else. We're also working hard to make the show as accessible as possible, with BSL hours, a portable hearing loop, designing it to be naturally accessible to audio description users and more - which is pretty unusual.

Is it difficult to prepare for a show that relies on audience input?

Because we're drawing from Dungeons & Dragons, we've got a tried and tested system for letting people join in, responding to what they want to do, taking their input on board. It's a lot easier for this show than it might be for others, because the audience input *is* the whole thing - we're not having to balance what players want to do with some story we're already committed to, or things in the performance that have to happen, it's all solely about what the players bring to the game.

The bigger challenge, actually, has been making sure that we can be prepared for anything players might need - that we can make them feel comfortable, welcome, relaxed, and like they know everything that they need to when playing. I feel a lot of responsibility for making sure that players have a really good time playing and that the whole atmosphere in the room is just like having fun with friends, so we're working hard to make this happen!

Who would you recommend comes to see you?

Anyone who goes to the Fringe to see something different, to genuinely be surprised and delighted by an unexpected show; anyone who wants to essentially be a part of an experiment in trying to gather hundreds of people together to tell one story; anyone who's seen Stranger Things or Community and is even a little bit curious about Dungeons & Dragons; anyone who enjoys improv shows or stripped-back storytelling performances; anyone who's looking for a laid back time, spent with a group of people trying to make each other laugh and tell stories; anyone who wants to spend some of their Fringe in a space with a friendly, cosy feel where you can be part of a group coming together around something rather than a lone audience member sat next to strangers; anyone looking for fantastical, strange stories or an utter escape from reality; anyone who'd enjoy time spent with those who have an unabashed love for something and who throw themselves into having fun doing it.

Timings and ticket information for Adventurers Wanted for players and audience members are available on the Sweet Venues website.

Photo Credit: Chrystal Ding