This is the world tour of Tripod’s opera into the world of Dungeons and Dragons, and we are privileged to have a special guest cast member in the form of Elana Stone. Elana plays a small and feisty dungeonmaster/love interest/dragon and is also an excellent singer. Tripod, as always, play themselves and quite often the fool as well.
The show opens with the quartet meeting to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons (which, nerd though I am, I have never indulged in). We are then drawn into their fantasy world where it is the dawn of time and the great tree of knowledge is planted. As usual man comes along and chops a branch off, and the tree, from its sap, creates a dragon as protector.
We then move forward to the present where our heroes are deciding on which character each will play in the game, ending up with Gatesy forced to be a warrior when he only wanted to be a bard, a dilemma that returns throughout the opera. Back to the story where their characters meet a beautiful maiden who warns them (in song) of what they will face and Gatesy falls in love. Scod (as a wizard) makes a pact with some evil wizards and our heroes journey to the place where the Tree of Knowledge resides. Gatesy battles the dragon, and then must make a perilous journey. Yon, as the priest (and goblin), tries to keep the group together through all these trials and the big finale is well worth hanging around for but I won’t spoil it for you.
Tripod have put on a tour de force of a show with all the correct operatic themes, so the songs that endlessly repeat a phrase are traditional and not just there to make Elana laugh, the huge elaborate songs that give away the main plots twists are meant to be ignored by the oblivious hero. There is also a screen behind our heroes that is used for shadow play, puppetry and other dramatic effects.
This is not the traditional Tripod show with a bunch of quick comic songs, but a well planned and executed performance (for all the appearance of being shambolic). There does seem to be a little bit of trying to make the guest laugh and mess up her lines but it looked like she was used to them (and being able to work with them for this long, she’s probably just as nerdy). It is at the Assembly HALL and runs for about an hour and a quarter. Don’t worry if you haven’t played (or heard of ) Dungeons and Dragons, as this is a show that everyone will love and you may even shed a tear at some of the songs in the show. There is also merchandise outside and you can meet the cast afterwards to praise them if you so desire.
Visit the Edinburgh Fringe website for booking details