THEATRE REVIEW: D&D-inspired puppet musical 'Same Time Next Week' is an absolute delight
Nothing quite tugs at my heartstrings like a story about friends who care for each other. I'm such a sucker for it. Same Time Next Week is, at its core, a story about exactly that. It just happens to be told through the language of Dungeons & Dragons: through magic and mischief, through role-playing as knights and scoundrels, through the childlike joy of collective make-believe.
Returning after its acclaimed debut season at The Blue Room Theatre in 2024, the premise of the musical remains unchanged: Having recently been diagnosed with leukaemia, Mark has only one request as he begins treatment: to play Dungeons & Dragons with three of his closest friends. Drew accepts the call and picks up a rulebook to assume the daunting role of Game Master for the first time, joined at the table by the experienced but overly eager Digby, and Liz, who is initially apprehensive. They each come to the game differently: some uncertain, some ready to backseat-drive. But all of them are determined to carry their friend through the most challenging period of his life. As the musical unfolds, their in-game adventures spill into the real world and vice versa, as the group navigates illness, love, and their shifting relationships with one another.
Written and directed by Scott McArdle of Improv RPG fame, this musical, presented this time at a bigger stage at State Theatre Centre, feels like a true labour of love, made by people passionate about both the subject matter at the heart of its story and the medium through which it tells it.
From the moment it starts, there is an emotional swell in the way this show tells its story, deploying every piece of production at its arsenal.
The first secret weapon is how deeply the show engages with its TTRPG roots. For anyone familiar with the game genre, there is an inherent invitation to engage on a meta level: players jump in and out of character, question the Game Master and try to redirect the story when it is not working for them. Same Time Next Week takes that a step further, peppering in moments that break the fourth wall entirely. At one point, Digby (Isaac Diamond, deliciously weaselly in his dual roles) turns to the live band and asks them to shift gears into more appropriate film noir-inspired jazz music as he introduces his character, Detective Smoked Meats. It is a kind of magic that works through an unspoken contract with the audience and our shared understanding of the game, a beautiful example of form following function.
Its second secret weapon is the live band, stacked with some of the best musicians in the WA music scene. We see them on stage before the characters even arrive, and from the opening score we feel static run across our skin, as if the music is summoning a charge that launches us into a spirit of wild imagination. It's likely due to the set-up of the Studio Underground space, but having the band sit side of stage, in full view of the audience, adds a layer of intimacy. We see the strings being pulled, and for some reason, we feel all the more immersed in the production because of it. There are times when we can't help but let our eyes wander to the band during a musical number, infected by how much fun they are having.
And then we have the musical’s not-so-secret weapons: Puppetry and People.
As we weave in and out of the weekly sessions, we catch glimpses of the friends' real lives: ordering dinner and boba during breaks, exchanging awkward greetings before the game starts. And, over the course of those weeks, we see the toll leukaemia and chemotherapy take on Mark.
The players' characters are brought to life as intricately made puppets, held up and performed by the actors next to them. The cast are on double duty here, having to play out the fantasy adventure of their in-game characters, layered on top of the players grappling with their responses to Mark's deteriorating condition. And the main party does this juggling act well, propped up steadily by the endlessly versatile Daniel Buckle as every other background character.
Amberly Cull is a force to be reckoned with, imbuing her multiple roles throughout the story with the just the right register they needed. As Drew, we feel her vulnerability when she sings about how much joy the game she is clumsily cobbling together seems to bring to Mark; as the ‘Big Bad’ Lady Morinth, we are awed by her beguiling menace as she belts through her villain monologue musical number, ‘What’s So Good About Being Good?’, armed with one of the most impressive puppets of the show.
Nick Pages-Oliver, who also serves as Puppetry director and producer, feels wholly realised as the eccentric bird wizard Vincenzo the Magnificent, a character that feels like it was tailor made for him to perform. Pages-Oliver contrasts his high-energy turn as Vincenzo, the character, with a quiet resignation as Mark, the player, a choice that works well for the story, where we feel more of Mark’s personality spark in through Vincenzo in the game, as his body slowly exhausts him through each round of chemotherapy outside of it.
The rest of the cast also shine. Isaac Diamond is particularly effective as comic relief in both Digby and Det. Smoked Meats, frequently clashing with Liz (Andrea Lim) to engaging effect. Lim also holds her own here as Liz, in the few moments we get to take a peek behind the curtain from her decidedly atheist cleric Ophelie Backbrace, especially during her heart-stirring solo number ‘Out of Time/Just In Time’, another highlight of the soundtrack.
However, the sky-high ambitions of Same Time Next Week are not achieved without some light turbulence along the way. The tension between the player and character storylines is part of what makes this story so special, but there are times when the delicate balance tips a little heavily into the (understandably) flash-bang nature of the fantasy campaign, stage time which would have better served the pacing and helped further crystallise its key themes had it been given to the players themselves.
Ultimately, Same Time Next Week delivers where it counts: For a musical peppered with dark sorcery, barmaids, kinky lizard people and elaborate puppets, it is funny, charged with exactly the shenanigans you would expect from a group of desperate friends fumbling through a tabletop role-playing game together, unafraid to swing from gloriously low-brow jokes about lizard cloaca to character-based humour and sharp observations for the more D&D-seasoned audience member. It is also astonishingly moving, catching you by surprise with emotional moments that bring you to the verge of tears between wildly entertaining musical numbers and set pieces.
Same Time Next Week is a miraculous piece of local musical theatre, and rolls a guaranteed critical hit on the dice.
4.5 out 5 stars
‘Same Time Next Week’ ran at the State Theatre Centre of WA from 9 July 2026 – 18 July 2026.
Header photo by Dan Grant
