Honky tonk and disco balls: If you're going to do country, this is how

It might feel contrived or over-polished in parts, but it’s part of the theatre. If Taylor Swift had gone hard country and stayed there, this could’ve been the tour.Reviewed by Kosa Monteith

THEATREDissent ★★Arts House, until March 24

When I first played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, role-playing games were so mysteriously uncool that they attracted conspiracy theories. Wild rumours circulated that D&D was a cover for a satanic cult. It was worse than that, of course. For many, role-playing was a road to the performing arts.

Moral panics and tin-foil-hat-wearers haven’t gone away since then (indeed, the internet has given a global soapbox to conspiracies such as QAnon), but the nerds are totally slaying it in the battle to win over mainstream culture.

It’s no surprise to find RPGs probing the porous border between games and art. These games are inherently theatrical – the Game Master may be likened to a writer/director, the players actors – and they offer, within a structure of improvised collaborative storytelling, what is essentially a style of participatory performance.

Daley Rangi’s Dissent uses tabletop role-playing to gamify everyday life. Audience members are randomly selected to play the game, while the rest of us watch.

Their characters are also randomly chosen: on opening night, we got a tattoo artist, a janitor and a social worker, all walking the streets of North Melbourne, represented on a table-sized map.

As they go about their business, the characters encounter and must respond to emergent situations – from witnessing criminal activity to seeing a child crying in the street – that demand moral choices.

Watching people role-playing live is more interesting than it sounds. It’s more popular, too, if the success of YouTube and Twitch streams such as Critical Role (which features a cast of voice actors playing D&D) is any guide.

Certainly, Rangi makes a dream Game Master: witty, eloquent, with an easy charisma and an endless supply of nerdy in-jokes.

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For their part, the players provided an eminently watchable blend of amusing improv and ingenious problem-solving, although the narrative didn’t connect them, and perhaps more pointed and detailed scenarios might have made Dissent a more satisfying ethical puzzle box.

As it is, the piece devolves into rather too idealistic a love-in, inviting the audience into groups to try to solve the world’s problems. It felt more like a leadership training course or a stray session at a theatre conference than art.

Still, Rangi’s presence suffuses the evening with camaraderie and rare warmth, and the tabletop gaming community should enjoy this intriguing experiment.Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

COMEDYMelbourne International Comedy Festival Gala ★★★★
Palais Theatre, March 20

A call-up to perform five minutes at the biggest night on the Australian comedy calendar is any comic’s dream. It’s also their worst nightmare – simultaneously exhilarating and horrifying.

If you slay the 3000-plus-seat theatre, you can essentially start looking at booking in extra performances in the last week of the festival. If you bomb, you’re in for a gruelling 3.5-week slog of ego-crushing, blatant self-promotion and half-empty rooms. Word of mouth is both a blessing and a curse.

As this year’s incarnation? There were a few from both columns, compered by a somewhat underwhelming Lizzy Hoo, whose material was never quite able to ignite the room.

Celia Pacquola began in red-hot form discussing pregnancy, meeting the love of her life via the internet and mistaking the Irish for Italians; Nath Valvo found a fiscal way to admit his love for Boomers and the nightmarish logistics of leaving a Beyonce concert; while Fern Brady scorched the earth with anecdotes about the misaligned confidence of Americans.

Former Deadly Funny winner Janty Blair spoke about the troubles of lying about your age on dating apps (and matching with her son); Daniel Connell’s dry quips about bookstore pranks were delivered with aplomb; Tommy Little declared his desire to remove speed limits in school zones and shared recollections of staying in an Airbnb church; and Australia’s pre-eminent provocateur of left-wing Millennials, Tom Ballard, shied away from the Liberal-bashing that got his last appearance at the Gala entirely wiped from the broadcast – recounting the US Embassy trying to explain Australian slang and a section centred on Ben Roberts-Smith.

As expected in such a colossal offering, there were a few lowlights. Kirsty Webeck, Nazeem Hussain, Lewis Garnham and Takashi Wakasugi were all received ho-hum. Musical acts failed to shine, with Cameron James, Reuben Kaye and Gillian Cosgriff all gathering middling responses while competing with sub-par acoustics.

New Zealander Ray O’Leary took home MVP honours, with a drawling, deadpan routine about nothing but mattress protectors. I won’t even try to explain – you’ll have to watch the broadcast.

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But no doubt the highlight of the evening was a tribute to the late, great Cal Wilson, with a montage of her career at the festival, which featured 13 appearances at previous Galas, alongside numerous outings at The Great Debate, Comedy Up Late and the MICF Roadshow alongside her contributions on the board of the Festival. Vale.Reviewed by Tyson Wray

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on from Wednesday, March 27 to Sunday, April 21. The Age is a festival media partner. The Gala airs on ABC TV and ABC iview on Wednesday, March 27.

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