Ten years on, the team at Improv RPG has firmly cemented itself as a must-see staple of the Boorloo Perth Fringe World season. This time around, they rolled out three new campaigns over the course of six nights at the Subiaco Arts Centre: its mainstay Dungeons and Dragons for the fantasy fans, Call of Cthulhu for the horror and Lovecraft fiends, and their new show, High Society, for the Bridgerton and Jane Austen romantics.

The concept for these shows is simple: they take an existing role-playing game system, strip it down to its bare basics, and use it as a backbone to support an improvised story. Across the run, they perform a series of shows that together mimic a full Dungeons and Dragons campaign, where the player characters go on a short adventure with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

The improvised story for each production unfolds like a unique adventure across three nights. Part of what makes Improv RPG’s series work so effectively is this structure. Similar to episodic network television of old, you can jump right in without having seen any of the previous sessions, while returning audiences are rewarded for their investment as the story picks up where it left off the night before. It’s a quietly genius format that encourages repeat attendance while remaining accessible to newcomers.

This review finds itself in the two back-to-back final sessions of two keystone shows for the Improv RPG crew on the final night of their 2026 Fringe run. The first is Dungeons & Dragons, the show that launched it all.

Having seen previous iterations, what struck me most was how the team now runs like a well-oiled machine. This campaign, as usual, is hosted by Dungeon Master and founder Scott McArdle, who addresses the audience and steers the adventure with full command of both the room and the game at hand. The role of the Games Master is to render the world and establish the premise for the player characters to interact with. With the added layer of audience interaction, McArdle juggles the chaos of improv theatre with uncanny smoothness and command, adapting to whatever the players throw at him while ensuring what unfolds on stage connects with D&D nerds and newcomers alike.

The premise of the finale: fresh off reuniting with his long-lost mother (Maree Cole, wonderfully game as an NPC all-rounder supporting McArdle), the bumbling warlock of mysterious infernal origin (Daniel Buckle, McArdle’s secret weapon lynchpin cast member for both shows), along with his party members, a hot-headed princess with a love of fire (Harper Nguyen, in a delightfully wry performance), and a self-serving pirate rogue with a French accent (Travis McInnes), has uncovered a secret plot involving an ancient curse that will cause untold harm across the kingdom unless one of them volunteers to be imprisoned as part of a magical ritual and confront the Big Bad, who currently holds the royal court under their sway.

It’s a classic fantasy climax scenario, one that the cast wastes no time in perverting to hilariously unpredictable results. The rogue (McInnes, chewing the hell out of every scene) considers letting the curse happen, as that would free them to pursue marriage with their weaselly husband, and in true D&D fashion, the characters waste what little time they have debating the right course of action.

It’s funny. It’s heartfelt. It doesn’t take itself seriously, but it is anchored by genuine storytelling and committed performance. Buoyed by a sharp, talented, and relentlessly committed troupe of performers, as well as dynamic live music from John McPherson on keys, who scores scenes and emotional beats in real time, Improv RPG Presents: Dungeons and Dragons invites us to give in to the silly while still delivering a wonderfully cohesive fantasy story.

Improv RPG Presents: Call of Cthulhu

After the laughter and wholesome highs of Dungeons and Dragons, a tonal shift emerges as we move into the finale of their second staple: Call of Cthulhu. Gone is the adventurous spirit of princesses and castles battling evil with a wink. Instead, we are transported to a Lovecraftian, Prohibition-era Earth: Arkham, where the horror is slower, stranger, and far less forgiving.

McArdle now appears in a suit and tie. Jazz music fills the background, with McPherson returning with a moody, atmospheric improvised score. Vocalist Tadgh Scanlon joins the fray, crooning at significant moments throughout the show, improvising lyrics based on whatever unfolds in the scene. Deep in our gut, we understand this is no longer just fun and games.

As the Lore Keeper recaps the events of the past two sessions, we are invited into a world of occult mystery. We pick up with our investigators: Georgia McGivern is magnetic as a femme fatale who has found her long-lost twin sister in the catacombs of a church in Italy (or ‘the small island of Italy’, likely a remnant of an earlier audience suggestion). McInnes returns, trading his French pirate accent for a transatlantic American one as a journalist. In a relentlessly hilarious performance, Rhianna Hall rounds out the cast as a naive nun who has taken a vow of silence and ends up being anything but.

Immediately, the show drips with creeping dread. The performers dive headfirst into the dramatic stakes, giving grounded, fully committed performances that match the gravity of their circumstances. They allow scenes to breathe. They allow tension to sit. There are moments where you can feel the audience hold their collective breath, completely enveloped in the stakes of the story, not long after chuckling at a slapstick ensemble bit.

This is the signature Improv RPG blend. They slip in and out of character, acknowledging the audience, puncturing the terror with flashes of meta humour. This oscillation between sincerity and self-awareness allows us to sit inside the story while also feeling in on it, as though we are peeking behind the curtain of something terrible unfolding. It is almost like watching a dramatic, spooky version of The Office, where we witness both the intensity of the horror and the chaotic delight of its construction.

Improv RPG expertly leverages the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons and Call of Cthulhu to provide structure and direction. Improv, by nature, can sometimes feel shapeless or too free-flowing. Here, the game system acts as a framework that gives narrative shape and momentum. They use the strengths of each medium to account for the weaknesses of the other: the role-playing mechanics provide structure and stakes, while the improv format frees them from the crunchier, rules-heavy aspects of tabletop gaming, allowing them to prioritise spectacle, character, and the rule of cool, elements far more accessible and entertaining for a theatre audience.

But at the end of the day, the RPG part almost doesn’t matter. Improv RPG is simply excellent improv theatre, delivered by highly capable performers who fully understand the trappings of the genres they are working within, and who bounce off each other like old friends, spinning outlandish choices into comedic or horrific, gold.