Sometimes going into a story relatively blind can be the wrong move. For “Not in Front of Dinner, Darling” knowing the premise both helped and hurt this audio drama role play experience. The result is not knowing the story until near the end of the second episode. A bit late for most people for a vampire role play blended with a choose-your-own-adventure story.
Disclaimer: This review came with a monetary donation.
In Vampire Russia, Adventure Choose You
This vampiric choose your own adventure audio drama isn’t exactly new. We’ve seen this in audio drama before. Not often, but enough to make this story told in second-person POV not have as much novelty as it perhaps once did. The Fairy Tree audio drama immediately comes to mind, but I imagine there are more out there.
What makes “Not in Front of Dinner, Darling” different is the added layer of role play to the story. Unlike a choose-your-own-adventure story, a role play is much more confined by the plot and therefore there’s less agency for the person watching, reading or listening. Despite this limitation baked into the form —Walter Thornburgh as the writer, editor and voice of Cervantes — balances the prerequisite of giving the listener just enough room to role play in this dark satirical vampire world — while also keeping the plot progression logical. There were only a handful of times when I said or thought something that the next line of dialogue ignored. This is to be expected from a role play story, but I’m shocked at the number of times my rhetorical responses actually clicked with the rest of the plot. For an over two-hour production broken into five episodes, that’s saying something.
Gay Misogynistic and Homophobic Lesbian Vampires
These aren’t your typical vampires. These particular creatures of the night are somewhere past the vampires from “Twilight,” but still have a good portion of their identity in the classical world. Think a much less serious version of the Netflix “Castlevania” show and your’e in the right ballpark. Instead of treating homosexuality as something those in power hate or fear, this vampire role-playing story satirizes the queer identity with over the top sexuality. Imagine every gay or lesbian character cliche in a television or movie and multiply it by 10.
While the performances of the two main vampires — Edmund and Cervantes — are overtly sexual, their characterization isn’t what one initially expects from the gay man stereotype. Granted it’s only a couple of steps away from being a cliche. For example, one of them is a self-declared misogynist and is repulsed by lesbian sex because they are women, not for any reason of hate. In addition to the juxtaposition (of which there are more), the side characters feel more fleshed out than some non-interactive stories. It’s not a small cast either.
Premise and Execution
Looking past the format and to the story itself is difficult. While the gimmick of the role-playing format here is good, the story is not so much. It still has its moments and I’m not saying it’s bad by any means. It’s just that compared to the role-playing aspect, the story seems to be third on a three-level list. The style is tied with the characters and the plot, which the latter feels ripped straight from an Agatha Christie story. “Not in Front of Dinner, Darling” uses its role play format quite well. Thornburgh cleverly uses the lamb’s POV i.e. the listener’s to get away with having tired tropes or stereotypical characters. There’s the surfer bro, a forbidden romance, and someone in a toxic relationship with their partner.
All in all, the writer uses the role-playing format to great effect, the story at times can feel more chaotic neutral in tone instead of chaotic good. While it never dips into chaotic evil, it plays dangerously close to the edge. Lastly, the ending feels rushed and the first two episodes could’ve been shortened or skipped entirely. The main event doesn’t begin until the third episode. Thankfully the episode of chapter breaks are clearly marked with instrumental music. If you’re listening to the definitive edition on YouTube, it’s easier to find your spot if you remember how many musical cues you’ve heard.
Rating: Low Internally Consistent (7.5+/10 Stars or 3.7/5 Stars)