Adventure Quest: The Play
June 30, 2009
Writer Richard Lovejoy has found a way to bridge the gap between 16-bit games and Søren Kierkegaard with Adventure Quest, a show whose hero is more concerned with "Who am I?" than saving the girl.
The play opens outside the town gates, where we meet the lead, a muscular Dudley Do-Right with an earnest nature and shiny blue tights. Wending his way around, he learns he's in Perilton, and must save the mayor's daughter from the clutches of the evil Evilicus. He is also guided by a Disembodied Voice, whose maddeningly vague answers - "I don't understand," "You can't do that" - will be familiar to anyone who ever screamed at their Wang while playing Zork.
Along the way we meet the usual gaming characters: a flirty merchant, local madman, cult members who pray to the Octopus God, and the occasional ogre. Our hero also saves the life of a peasant girl who is being attacked for not paying her taxes (something I could identify with).
Also well-observed are the show's "puzzles," i.e.: when talking to a guard doesn't get him into the town, our hero feeds him that blueberry pie from his inventory and then sings him to sleep with a lullaby. And when the castle window is too high to reach, he ties a rope to a sharpened broomstick, then sticks a fish on the end of it - of course! - for a jerry-rigged way to hoist himself in.
Time and again, our hero asks the Disembodied Voice why he has to perform these ridiculous tasks - how come he can't just settle down with the peasant girl instead? Who is this mayor's daughter and why does he of all people have to risk everything to save her?
This is the crux of Adventure Quest - how do we all get through this Atari game called life? As random and ridiculous as the show can get, its main perils - falling in love, following your heart instead of your head - are as true to life as the Disembodied Voice with no answers. Like it or not, we're all forced to live life on life's terms, whether it be in Peoria, Brooklyn or Perilton. But one thing I did learn from Adventure Quest - never drink the Cemetery Tea.
Adventure Quest is playing at the Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Click here for tickets.
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