By SHARON EBERSON
You don’t have to be a role-playing gamer to appreciate Night of the Moth Man, but it is a bonus, judging by the reaction to every role of the RPG dice on opening night.
The spooky, spoofy Dungeons & Dragons-style live comedy show spending three Fridays at Arcade Comedy Theater is based on the Bedlam Arts and Goods game, designed by Pittsburgh-based Eamon McNamee and ready-made for Halloween.
Produced by Connor McCanlus, Arcade’s academy director and now onstage in Pittsburgh CLO’s The Rocky Horror Show, the live-show Moth Man is led by Game Master John Feightner and employs improv by the “players”: Regina Connolly, Paul Fields, Tal Kroser and Kendall White, as four tweens with distinct personalities. A bully who has stolen their candy and hijacked what might be their last night of trick-or-treating, dares them to spend time at a notorious cabin in the woods. Challenges and laughter ensue.
Feightner keeps things rolling, giving voice to all the characters besides the costumed kids, as the quartet of players/actors let clever quips fly.
I attended Episode One of the three-parter, which continues on the next two Friday nights at 8 p.m., concluding on Halloween night. Feightner acknowledged that the irony of the title including, “Night,” singular, is understood, but there you have it.
It did not seem necessary, however, to have been at Episode One and then be able to pick up where they left off, even though it was a bit of a cliffhanger ending.
The four performers gave it their all, being inventive and going for the comedy jugular, but with good-natured camaraderie. I was nearly in stitches as Kroser, wrapped in a very effective Mummy costume, never faltered from his sweet demeanor, even while expressing a rather bizarre (and hysterical) explanation for the awful things that stirred in the night.
Fields as an intellectual Skeleton; White, a snarling yet sweet Devil; and Connolly as an empathetic Frankenstein Monster, are fast in their seats – only Feightner stands, but you still get a sense of action.
I have a particular interest in the legend of the Mothman – for one, the 2002 Richard Gere movie The Mothman Prophecies filmed scenes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newsroom. I was the Sunday Magazine editor at the time, and we did a special cover that explained sightings in West Virginia, circa 1966 and ’67, and the disasters that followed. The 1975 John Keel book, The Mothman Prophecies, inspired the movie, with its claim that events related to the sightings of a winged monster with glowing eyes was connected to the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, W.Va. … You get the vibe.
The split of Moth Man into two words separates it from the legend and even the game, but this isn’t your traditional Mothman – the monster of the live show may need the help of trick-or-treaters who can improv their way through whatever is thrown at them. The comedy derives from the performances and the hands they are dealt by the roll of the dice – show via a screen; usually but not always the 20-sided kind. The higher the number, the better for the role players. Scores of 1 and 2 mean they are in big trouble.
It’s hard to know how episodes will connect as the storytelling turns the Mothman legend into a sort of Stranger Things adventure, but Episode One was in my wheelhouse: Cartoony-spooky, with more sugar than spice, and an appreciative audience for a show that respects multiple fandoms.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Night of the Mothman continues at Arcade Comedy Theater, 943 Liberty Ave., Downtown, at 8 p.m. on October 24 and 31, 2025. Tickets: https://www.arcadecomedytheater.com/event/the-night-of-the-moth-man-2/. Check out what’s happening at Arcade Comedy through December at https://www.arcadecomedytheater.com/events/ .
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Feature Stories, Our Posts, Show Previews
Leave a Reply Cancel reply