ROLE PLAY
Chris (Rafer Weigel) is the classic teenage underachiever, a character who should be familiar to anyone who went to school in the ‘burbs or bought an album by Rush. Never able to come to terms with his parents’ divorce and his mom’s remarriage to a schmuck, Chris blows off school and immerses himself in the role-playing fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons. After school Chris and his buddies Robert (David Vanwert), Alex (Sean Patrick Hayes), and Jenny (Karen Hough) can escape their sorry existence as outcasts and dweebs and live out their fantasies of being knights and thieves, saving damsels in distress and fighting the evil monster Crag; a cool, detached Dungeon Master (Andrew J. Turner) rolls the dice that determine their fates.
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Organic’s production almost compensates for the inadequacies of Berg’s script, with exceedingly good acting from just about everybody in the cast of ten and razor-sharp direction from Paul Frellick. Robert G. Smith’s ingenious rotating set gives the feeling that the action is spanking along. A few cuts here and there and some rethinking and development of the characters, and Organic could have a cult hit on its hands.
