Actors’ Drama Game: Fortunately – Unfortunately

This is a very simple game for a group of people. You can find lots of variants how to play it.

• People
• And one person to start by setting a scenario

Yes, very simple game, no paper and pens, no dice. So you can play it anywhere. It’s quite famous and has appeared in TV series.

I was in Belgrade and because they have a couple of national heroes, I made up this scenario: “Nicola Tesla and Mileva Einstein-Maric meet at a speed-dating event in New York in a candlelit room.”

First player says: “Fortunately: Nicola Tesla has a magnetic personality. ” And the second player says: “Unfortunately: Mileva is non-ferrous.” And so on. If you have an odd number of people, you will alternately respond as Fortunately and Unfortunately. If you have an even number of people, you will always be one or the other.

There aren’t any rules after that. You can do things like go twice round the group; or you finish when everyone laughs at a response or when no-one laughs. You have to try to be relevant, refer back to the scenario or previous responses.

In the world of acting, the game is used to test that a person who has to give Fortunately responses can be really optimistic and turn any grim situation into a happy one. And for the Unfortunately responders, turn any happy situation into a grim one.

Be very interesting with the choice of scenario: in Germany, I’ve used Konrad Adenauer’s funeral; in Ireland, you’re in the Green Room with Bono. Make it interesting with some big characters and some themes.