The path to becoming better

Outside a bar at Gen Con, between screeching bursts of a nearby train, I follow the winding trail of conversation with the mononymous Rah Rah, and Feral Moonbeam, their partner both in art and life. Adorned in flower crowns and flowing garments, the duo look like a renaissance painting of a fairy tale set to a Fleetwood Mac album. These ethereal beings are the creative minds behind The Heart Is A Dungeon, a production house that makes actual plays and audio dramas “focused on loss, healing, mourning, and joy,” according to the show’s description

Their most recent season, Once Happily Upon After, is an actual play of Under Hollow Hills by Meguey and Vincent Baker. The system and the series tell the story of a circus that travels through the realms of both fairy and man. Nominated across five web fests, The Heart Is A Dungeon is truly unlike any show I’ve encountered previously, using the artistic intersections of the medium to create a lyrical actual play. 

Facilitated by a narrative-forward game engine like Powered by the Apocalypse, players center internal emotions and communal relationships over external plot, all while delivering their performances in the fluttery, surreal, chaotic cadence of fairies. On the production side, there’s a DIY quality to the show that feels like the podcast equivalent of watching an emotionally devastating play in a 20-seat black box theater. Rah-Rah’s self-taught audio editing skills result in what I can only describe as aural poetry. The soundscape morphs rapidly alongside the player’s choices and dialogue, but never entirely fades into the background. The music itself is a player, always in conversation with the story as it’s being told. 

I sat down with Rah Rah and Moonbeam to discuss not only their show, but also their recent grant initiative: the Lone Heart Award. What I expected to be a conversation about actual play fairies and a touch of mutual aid, evolved into a discussion about why we make art at all, the realities of providing care within a community, and an insight into the lives of one of the most fascinating new minds in the space.

This interview was edited for clarity, length, and flow.