“Dungeons and Drag Queens,” happening Saturday, Nov. 14, In Olympia, is just as intriguing as its name. Part role-playing game, part improv comedy show, “Dungeons” mixes the fantastical and the fabulous. Three drag queens are the players in an on-stage version of “Dungeons & Dragons,” while audience members act as non-player characters.
“Queens are fantastical beings in and of themselves, so it kind of makes sense in a D&D world,” said comedian Paul Curry, who hosts the Seattle-based show and produces it with queen Kylie Mooncakes and musician Carson Cutter. “You could imagine that there could be magical drag queens that fit the feudal aesthetic and have this power and magnanimity.”
“The show has this really funny dynamic,” Curry said. “The dungeon master sets up this world and sets up all these characters. The queens are sardonic. They are sarcastic. They run amok within this world. They challenge the assumptions of the universe.”
Curry serves not only s dungeon master but also as the emcee of the show. “What is Dungeons & Dragons?” he intones in an online episode (https://youtu.be/_ZtzneINCK4). “People have pondered this question for millennia. But only since the ’70s has anyone had an answer,
“D&D is a game that takes place within the theater of the mind,” he continues. “So I ask all of you for just a moment to close your eyes.” He then sets the scene with help from Cutter, who improvises a dramatic soundtrack to the goings on.
The Olympia show features Mooncakes along with Kymera D’Vil and D’Mon, whose fantasy alter egos are Kyla Luna Muffin, Kymera D’Villain and D’mon the D’emon. In the world of the game, the queens’ characters are part of a mercenary hall that accept such quests as killing a dragon or saving a town.
“In the show, they are extremely powerful beings, but they are also capricious,” Curry said. “If a drag queen accepts your quest, you don’t know if you are going to end up with your task complete or if you are going to end up a crater in the ground.”
He creates and structures the adventures, making them complex enough to be interesting yet simple enough to resolve within 90 minutes. “You could be drunk. You could be high. You could have walked in 30 minutes late, and you should still be able to pick up what’s happening in the show,” he said.
It’s a simplified version of the beloved game, but those familiar with it will recognize the basic elements — including the famed roll of the die. “Every action the queens take in this game is mediated by the roll of a massive 20-sided die, and there is no telling where the adventure will go in each and every show,” he said in an interview (https://www.mtgfestivals.com/global/en-us/magiccon-news/dungeons-drag-queens.html) for MagicCon: Las Vegas.
Curry, who admits his show wasn’t the first to combine the geek factor of Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role-playing game invented in 1974, with the glamor of drag queens. But he’s clearly tapped into something with the show, which tours nationwide.
“D&D has entered into the queer,” he told Oly Arts. “You can be anything within it, so people find a lot of freedom of expression, and freedom of expression and queer culture go hand in hand.”
Curry started his professional dungeon master career with a show called “D&D LOL,” which involved comedians playing the game. He and a drag-queen friend decided to do a one-off version featuring queens, and the rest was history — or fantasy. “That show was so successful that I stopped doing ‘D&D LOL,’ ” he said.
Surprisingly, his own history with the game doesn’t go back much further than that. He first played it in college and was immediately captivated.
“When I played it for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is kind of an improv game,’ ” he said. “It’s a very well-developed improv game. It’s been so well-formulated that anyone feels comfortable playing it with a group of people. I was like, ‘This is super fun. … Let’s see if audiences will enjoy it.’ ”
Photos courtesy of “Dungeons and Drag Queens.”
WHAT
“Dungeons and Drag Queens”
WHEN
8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14
WHERE
Cryptatropa Bar, 421 4th Ave. E, Olympia
COST
$30-$75
LEARN MORE
https://dndq.live/
ALSO
The show is open only to ages 21 and older.