Whisper the phrases “Video Games”, “Improv” and “Musical” into my ears and there isn’t a white van in Edinburgh that I won’t jump in to. I walked into Non-Player Character with extremely high expectations, and while it was definitely enjoyable, there were several hiccups that stopped the virtual reality from taking over.
The show usually pulls four players from the audience, but for the duration of the Edinburgh Fringe run, the crew invites the cast from another fringe show every night. Writer, Director and Performer Brendan Bradley leads the hapless individuals through a quest as the NPC to their oddly adorable stone-faced characters. They’ll solve puzzles, fight a monster (in his own words, obviously a metaphor) and even participate in a section that’s lifted straight out of Beat Saber.
While you’d expect performers from other fringe shows to be more assertive during improv, VR is the great leveller – visually cut off the from the outside world, the players rely on Brendan leading them through the shouts, cries and button presses of the remainder of the audience. Brendan himself hops between the game and real worlds, interacting with the audience, band and players.
Technical Director Michael Morran has used off the shelf software to create a breathtaking immersive and interactive experience. The filesize of the system has been so optimised that audience members could join from their phones. Michael couldn’t be present on the night of the review, but was able to direct remotely from halfway across the globe.
The unique room setup at the Fringe also allowed the virtual world to be projected in a 360° view on the walls as opposed to the usual single screen at the front. The team had to rebuild and rethink a lot of how they displayed the world for this production, and it paid off in spades. The performance is an excellent showcase of the potential of this technology and its ability to immerse the audience in the show, both those in the headsets and those in the crowd.
Of course, things didn’t go quite so smoothly on the night. One player’s headset cut out during the tutorial section, and another’s halfway through an emotional song, leaving only two standing when the headsets came down. While the low-polygon art style was an intentional choice to let the audience’s imagination fill in the blanks, there were issues with the physics as players clipped through objects and accidentally sent key items into the lower ionosphere. These problems were fixed on the fly, but every glitch pulled the audience out of the illusion.
The story and music are both serviceable - Maurice Soque Jr expertly mixes and performs the music live on the night, with “Listen to Your Heart” being a standout with a call-and response between a rock and a sax. All the songs are performed by Brendan, with the players being relegated to background dancers. However, there were a few moments where players spoke over key moments of the songs, which made it difficult to really interact with the emotions being performed.
In short, the show is a good time and worth going to see if you’re interested in the concept, but the physical realities don’t play out to their full potential. Non-Player Character: A Virtual Reality Musical runs at Imaginex at Yotel Edinburgh until 26th August - for more information and tickets, you can follow the link here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3*)
Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | photography by Michelle Rose
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