A Shoggoth on the Roof
"How does it sit on such a pointy roof? I can tell you in one word: TENTACLES!"
—Professor Armitage
A Shoggoth on the Roof is a parody of Fiddler on the Roof. It involves a family with three edible eligible daughters, and the family dealing with each daughter's suitor. So, much like Fiddler.
Except the family is the Armitage family, and they live in Arkham. So, Fiddler on the Roof with Tentacles.
The plot was written several years ago by Him Who (For Legal Reasons) Must Not Be Named, and polished up and printed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. The music is identical, which has led to the owners of Fiddler suing every single for-profit production; many free productions have been struck by mysterious mishaps. The only two productions that have been performed, albeit in an edited form, are a Swedish version done at Miskatonicon and a minimalistic English version with an edited score done for the Irish gaming con Leprecon.
This play shares the basic frame of its plot with Fiddler on the Roof, so they share many tropes. However, those unique to this play, or belonging to both but twisted, are as follows:
- Affectionate Parody: Again, a-duh. The plot of Fiddler is wonderfully twisted by the Mythos.
- Cthulhu Mythos: Oh yeah. The Big Green himself appears in the last act. In the Swedish production, they had an actual foot descend onto the cast. In the Irish production, the actors looked up and screamed before falling down.
- But not before bursting into song with the rest of the cast. He has a rather soothing voice it must be said.
- Downer Ending: As with Fiddler, "The only positive thing you can take out of that ending is that they didn't die."
- Well, at the very least, they don't stay dead for long thanks for Dr. West's reanimation serum.
- Eldritch Abomination: A-duh.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Well, more of a literary hero upgrade, but anyway: Herbert West, the crazed and frankly rather dangerous Mad Scientist from the original stories, is here shown (despite his Science-Related Memetic Disorder) as Prudence's true love and the only hope the people of Arkham have in the end against the Great Old Ones . He even manages to convince Armitage to let them marry, even though Armitage cheerfully admits that "young West should face a firing squad".
- I Have No Daughter: Armitage disowns Asenath after her betrothal to the Head Cultist.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Pretty much everything, by the nature of the play. "Do You Fear Me?" deserves special mention, however, for having the tone of a soft love song (since the original song was one), despite being about the terror inspired by the rising of Cthulhu.
- Naughty Tentacles: The script plays this up, though it never actually happens.
- Nightmare Fetishist: All of Armitage's daughters, apparently. Alternately, they're really, really desperate.
- Prudence actually just seems to see a highly practical application for her beloved Herbert's re-animation serum, and is more or less oblivious to the nastier aspects.