Act One of Five: If you don’t cast a shadow, are you really there? Not a riddle: we’re about to find out.
Coming next on 27 May – Other selves (Vigil Backstage)
Programme notes
This production contains fantasy violence, gunfire, and references to child abduction.
Find Matt at UK Games Expo, 30 May–1 June at the NEC in Birmingham. He’s running some roleplaying game sessions you can sign up to join.
Dramatis personae and other definitions
Melody Bantham: The owner of Melodies, the cosy cafe and vinyl shop on Market Street. Melody is an ageless patchwork person animated by music, who fled her creator ages ago and has owned a music shop on this spot ever since.
Harper: A US exchange student trying to sever her ties to the Shadow realm she sometimes enters through revolving doors.
Gwynned, the Shieldmaiden: A former shieldmaiden of the triple goddess Morrigan, exiled to live as a duck for the crime of saving a mortal man from her mistress’ cruel whim, now freed from her curse and elevated to a third of the godhead herself.
Brier: A mischievous shapeshifting púca, the fae guardian of Sherrydown’s Rosebrier Forest.
Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.
Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.
Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Recently lifted.
Credits
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Helen Stratton as Melody Bantham, the Constructed
Marta Da Silva as Harper, the Searcher
Natalie Winter as Gwynned, the Divine
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Matt Boothman
SFX AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC INCLUDES: Pigeons taking off by Glaneur de sons on freesound.org (CC BY 4.0); and may include others made available to use without attribution.
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman