The Habits

The Habits is a wonderful 1 act play surrounding a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), a tabletop role play game that I am quite familiar with as a viewer but admittedly have only played a few times. For anyone who hasn’t played, the traditional game roots itself in fantastical elements like Elves and Dragons and utilises a variety of dice to decide how effective a chosen action is - this is a very simplistic view of the game but helpfully the program came with a much more in depth explanation so unfamiliar audience members could easily become acquainted.

The story follows a teenager and 2 of her late-older brother’s friends as they meet at a board game café to play DnD to help each other through their shared grief. The owner of the board game café eventually becomes an established member of the party, along with his girlfriend, despite reservations. The story was succinct and engaging, exploring death, grief, and friendship.

What I liked

The production was in the round, so a 5 sided table sat centre stage and the cast rotated positions across scenes, especially helpful to avoid seeing the back of an actor's head for the whole performance. The whole direction of the show was wonderful, it never felt static, and the use of lighting and sound effects enhanced the wondrous world told by the dungeon master. I felt that it did a fantastic job at demonstrating how a game of DnD functions and feels for those involved, while using it as a vehicle for heavier discussions.

All the performances were fantastic, each cast member was unique and each character was compelling. One aspect of the characters that was particularly interesting to me was that they were flawed in ways that were unrelated to the story, just a general differing of points of view of topics that got mentioned in passing that created a fuller picture of who they each were, but not in a way that required solving within the story. To me, this highlighted the way that DnD works to bring different people together with a form of escapism that is, in actuality and despite its complex game mechanics, quite simple. Put your differences aside, and save a prince from danger.

I also appreciated the play’s ability to tell a complex story about grief without spoon-feeding it to the audience. They didn’t explain specifically how the brother died, but you knew why and you could see the way grief manifested in different capacities without outright telling us that’s what was happening to each character.

What wasn’t my favourite

I don’t have anything to criticize in this play, I think it did a wonderful job at what it set out to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only bad thing I can think of is that the theatre had sold out of the script so I needed to purchase it online instead. Truly outrageous.

 Overall

This was a great show, and I will be purchasing the script for myself, and to send to my sister who is a huge DnD player (yes, I in fact will need to purchase 2 online). I think my main takeaways from the show is an appreciation of taking a game that can seem unapproachable and showing how anyone can connect to it, and how it can help them in some instances. The connections we have to each other are just as real in a “silly game” with dragons, and it is each other that will help us through the big battles we face, like grief.