D&D begins Sunday (July 10) at Snakes & Lattes (600 Bloor West), See listing GODOT begins Friday (July 8) at Honest Ed’s Underground Parking (581 Bloor West), See listing. Patrons can come and go as they please, subject to capacity.
Most Fringe shows clock in at an hour or maybe 90 minutes, but this year two companies are testing the limits of audience and performer endurance. Dungeons & Dragons, (Not) The Musical allows audiences to observe an epic six-hour D&D game in action, while The Godot Cycle will doggedly repeat Samuel Beckett’s existential masterpiece non-stop for two mind-boggling spans of 30 and 54 hours.
“Ultimately, I have no idea what’s going to happen,” laughs Praxis Theatre’s Aislinn Rose, organizer of Dungeons & Dragons. “It’s an experiment, an opportunity to look at audience relationships and performance in a new way.”
For the tournaments, which double as research for a future project, Rose has organized three six-hour D&D sessions – enhanced by live visuals and sound – in the basement of Snakes and Lattes. (“It’ll feel like going down to your parents’ basement to play.”) The first game will feature theatre community members who grew up with D&D, the second will be played by a group of elite gamers, while the final quest will mix the two communities.
“So much of role-playing games is already performative. I want to find out what happens when an audience is introduced, and what differences emerge between the theatre and gaming communities as the stories unfold.”
By contrast, at the six-hour mark, The Godot Cycle (by theatre company Yes Let’s Go) will just be getting started.
“It’s exciting but also a little bit terrifying,” admits Eric Craig (Vladimir)who along with David Christo (Estragon) will spend over three days under Honest Ed’s trapped in Beckett’s repeating universe.
“I think the biggest problem will be confusion,” muses Craig. “Losing the mental acuity you normally have in a performance situation will be especially challenging in a play that is so repetitive and cyclical.”
The pair will be joined by a revolving cast of 45 actors who will play the three supporting characters in four-hour shifts. But can Craig and Christo really go on for 54 hours straight? What about bathroom breaks?
“There will be a porta-potty off to the side that will only by accessible to us. You say your lines from within the porta-potty if you have to, but the show never stops, no matter what. It has to be unstoppable, this thing that keeps rolling with or without you.”
Craig points out that the marathon treatment only amplifies the torture of repetition at the heart of the play.
“There is a sadistic side to this show, a freak show, cockfight, bear-baiting side. People enjoy watching other people struggle. That’s in Beckett’s play, and that will be in our performance. Everyone will show up with a tiny part of them hoping to see one of us say ‘I have to stop.’ But I can promise you, I won’t crack.”
