Marcellos kjeller

Marcellos Kjeller
English name	Marcello's Basement
Tagline	Poker, Polka & Russian Roulette
Duration	6 hours
Designed by	Eirik Fatland Arvid Falch Erlend Eidsem Christina Christensen Li Xin
Techniques	Pre-larp workshop Intention signalling Karaoke Safewords Act structure Ars Ordo (light)
Participants	25-48
First run	2010 at Laivfabrikken Oslo
Website	laivfabrikken.no/marcello

A larp musical, built around the music and lyrics of the album Ompa til du dør by Norwegian band Kaizers Orchestra.

Summary

The War has gone on forever. In the basement of Marcello Conradas, in the small Norwegian town of Bryne, resistansen (a rag-tag coalition of heroes and criminals under the spiritual guidance of Mr. Kaizer and his Constanze) meet every Friday to play games of cards and Russian Roulette, and plan their next daring raid against the Enemy. The larp is about an unusually eventful such Friday in Marcello's basement, the evening when Victoria was murdered and young Tony died and Mr. Kaizer was betrayed, and Forsyningens fateful encounter with the goons of Fredrik Meltzers.

The characters are mostly people mentioned in Kaizer's lyrics, belonging to the different gangs and social constellations of the Bryne underground. Every 20 minutes of the larp, players enter "musical mode", where one of the songs from the album is played, and everyone is expected to sing along as the events described in the lyrics are acted out by those mentioned in the lyrics. The second half of the larp also features Russian Roulette, presided over by Dirigenten ("the Director") who may or may not be the Devil.

Production history

Marcellos Kjeller was originally the flagship event of the Oslo Larp Factorys first seasons, and drew on the whole Larp Factory network in its writing and production. It was designed to be compact - playable also for people who dropped in at the last second. It had higher production values than most short-form larps, with a carefully constructed scenography and a library of props and costumes for players to borrow from. The first run was considered a success, and rerun soon followed. Despite unusually demanding production requirements, it has as of early 2016 been played 8 times: In Oslo (*2), Trondheim (*2), Bergen, Stavanger, Västerås and Copenhagen, with a ninth rerun in the works.

Due to its highly local nature, with multiple references to obscure aspects of Norwegian culture and on puns and in-jokes in the Jæren dialect, Marcellos Kjeller is considered to be untranslatable to English and challenging to comprehend for players from the other Scandinavian countries.

Techniques

• Fateplay
• Pre-larp Workshop
• Intention signalling
• Karaoke
• Safewords
• Act structure
• Ars Ordo (light)

External links

• Original run website
• First Run Photos (by Li Xin)
• Second Run Photos (by Li Xin)