Available for free on YouTube and made up of a series of videos, RuneSical was filmed with a live audience in Cambridge after runs at Edinburgh and MTFest.
The twist is that the show now allows you, the audience member, at home to influence the action as it progresses. Which path to take, who to trust, which item to seek: it’s up to you.
With each journey, you only see seven of the videos, but each of the first six allows two or three choices to progress, with the final one coming to a resolution.
Gigglemug has created a fun show inspired in part by the online game RuneScape and inhabits the same universe of Gielinor, but with songs and silliness.
Written, directed, and produced by Sam Cochrane and Alex Prescot, RuneSical brims with fun without trying to be too clever. It also works well for seasoned game players or those new to the genre (like me).
Both creators feature in the show, with Cochrane as the wizard requesting you make your choices. As lead players Lance, Odin, and Pearl, there is good work from Christian Maynard, Katie Pritchard, and Jenna Sian O’Hara.
Elsewhere there are camels and cats, fishermen and dwarfs, gnomes and gods. There are quests both large and small, hidden villains, and an out of universe secret.
The interactive bit isn’t as open as you might think – it is more Actual Quest or 52 Souls, curated path than something where you wholly control the narrative (Lance will work with Odin, regardless of which path is chosen).
However, I enjoyed the songs and the characters and felt RuneSical had more of a committed feel for where it was going than Gigglemug’s recent live show Scouts – The Musical. They are fast becoming the tops in “seriously silly musicals.”
RuneSical is an entertaining piece that runs around an hour in total. I would recommend watching it at least twice to enjoy all the songs and routines from this talented cast and company.
Watch RuneSical now on YouTube and follow the prompts to progress. It works well on both app and Fire Stick, so it should be fine in most viewing options.
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Image credit: Damian Robertson/Gigglemug Comedy