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Summary
- Burrow’s End is the twentieth season of Dimension 20, featuring a thrilling side quest with a family of stoats in the Blue Forest.
- Siobhan Thompson’s character, Jaysohn, brings a hilarious and silly dynamic to the season, while still facing dramatic challenges.
- The sibling relationships between Jason and Lila, and Jet and Ruby, offer rich storylines and exploration of childhood dynamics.
Burrow’s End is not only an all-new side quest but also the twentieth season of Dimension 20. The new season follows a family of stoats living in the Blue Forest. When tragedy strikes their home, they are forced to flee and must rely on each other to survive the perils of the Blue Forest as more is revealed about the strange power in the woods.
Aabria leads this side quest as the Game Master, with a fantastic cast of longtime Dimension 20 cast members including Brennan Lee Mulligan, Siobhan Thompson, Erika Ishii, and Isabella Roland. The cast also brings two newcomers into the dome, Jasper William Cartwright and Rashawn Nadine Scott. Burrow’s End will consist of 10 episodes.
Screen Rant spoke with Siobhan Thompson about Dimension 20’s new season, Burrow’s End. She revealed that Jaysohn was originally created as Peter Rabbit as an alternative for Neverafter and the family dynamic at the table. Thompson also discussed Fantasy High: Junior Year, teasing a ridiculously silly season and explaining the difference between the Stupendous Stoats and Intrepid Heroes tables.
Siobhan Thompson On Dimension 20: Burrow’s End
Screen Rant: I love Dimension 20. It is one of my favorite shows and this season is both hilarious and terrifying. So it’s a great combo.
Siobhan Thompson: I feel like the most dramatic season that we’ve done, but it’s still funny. There’s still silly, funny, goofy bits.
Especially Jaysohn.
Siobhan Thompson: Yes, Jaysohn’s a silly boy. But I think that the big difference for us all is it’s much more character-based comedy rather than us doing little bits as an aside.
Can you talk to me a little bit about your character creation process and what you were excited to play with Jaysohn that you haven’t gotten to with other characters?
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, I wanted to play a character that was more of a martial build. And I had actually come up sort of with this character Neverafter. One of the characters that I pitched, I pitched Sleeping Beauty, but I also pitched Peter Rabbit. And had this sort of Harengon Monk build. It made more sense with the characters that everybody else was doing to play Sleeping Beauty for that campaign. But I still had that hope, that sounds really fun, though. And then Aabria came and said, Do you want to do this season that sort of Watership Down-ish? And I was like, Yes, I do. And I know exactly what I’m. Yes! Yes I beat the system!
Your dynamic with Izzy is one of my favorite parts of just the first two episodes alone. Did you guys develop that before? Or did that happen organically?
Siobhan Thompson: Not at all. We always have a session zero where we play with no cameras rolling. I think we did a little bit of it in the session zero, but we just sort of naturally fell into that pattern of two hyperactive eight year olds talking over each other. But was just really fun to do of like, Well, anytime she’s talking to a grown up, I’m gonna start talking to a grown up and say exactly the same thing that she’s saying, but in a slightly different way. And that was just fun. It was just a fun little game for us to play.
I love it. The introduction to the game of you guys just immediately attacking each other was perfect.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah. Yeah, I have an eight year old brother who absolutely rules. I love him to bits. But he definitely has some of that like, oh, there’s a little bit too much untapped energy here. Oh, wrestling? Oh, again. I’m oldQ
Can you talk to me a little bit about differentiating the sibling relationship between Jason and Lila versus Jet and Ruby?
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, it’s funny I sort of didn’t mean to play two twins. It sort of happened organically. Jet and Ruby being not adults, but old enough that they think that they’re adults is such a big difference between that and being, I feel like 8-9 is the last real years of childhood. Then you get into tweendom. It’s the last moment that you’re unselfconscious about yourself. Sort of swing around and punch things and you’re not necessarily… not self aware but aware of others perception of you. Which is really fun to play.
And it’s just always fun to play a sibling there’s so much backstory that’s already written for you within that. These are two kids whose dad died at a point in their childhood that they remember their dad, but they also have had a couple of the equivalent of human years of him being gone. And how does that affect that dynamic of, well I’m gonna fight you constantly for attention because I’m eight, but also I would kill for you, because I’ve seen the pain that you’ve gone through and I’ve gone through it too.
It’s such a rich relationship.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, it was so fun playing at this table, just in terms of the ability to just throw something down and have somebody pick it up without having to say anything explicitly. Just throwing each other little gifts and running with it was just really delightful. Yeah, I loved it. It was a really good time.
Can you talk to me a little bit about how Aabria’s DM style differs from Brennan’s? Because you play with Brennan as your GM so often.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, I think in many ways it is difficult for me to put my finger on exactly how they do it differently because they’re both so excellent that I feel fully immersed immediately. And then I’m just in character and I’m playing and I’m not sitting there as an outsider analyzing like, oh, that’s different. But they do feel different. There’s a different energy to them in a way that it was really fun playing at somebody else’s table. But I don’t know. I truly don’t have the analytical ability to tell you how they’re different because I was just in it. They’re both great. They’re both wonderful. And my my notes are I have no notes.
Can you talk about playing with Brennan as a player? Especially because he’s playing your mom this season?
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, I’ve played with Brennan and a couple times as a player and it’s always very interesting. The thing that I was joking about going into this is Brennan always min-max’s his player characters in a way that is insane. He actively went into this season, not doing that and creating a character that actually doesn’t have the ideal stats for the class that she’s playing.
And it’s it’s more she’s really trying her best, but she’s also so tired. She really just tried her best. And I don’t know. I love playing with Brennan. I feel very spoiled in this job because everybody’s just that good that I never have to worry about anybody. I’m never annoyed by anybody else at the table. Having done a lot of comedy and a lot of improv comedy. I feel like so much my experience early on was like, I feel like we’re communicating badly and I feel like we’re doing a bad job.
And I feel like I’m giving out gifts and you’re not picking them up and you’re giving out gifts and I’m not picking them up and what are we doing? And I never have to worry about it any time when I’m sitting at the Dimension 20 table because everybody’s such a generous improviser. Brennan played such a sweet gentle sad mom, it was really adorable to see.
You guys continuously gave his character heart attacks by doing things like jumping into a bear.
Siobhan Thompson: I gotta climb that rock. There’s nothing I can do. I have to, I just have to do it. Which I feel like it’s very, the devil blesses the most anxious parents with the most brave children and that’s just how it goes.
I was actually going to ask you about that, Jaysohn kind of steps up in both episodes. He leads his family away from the danger and then immediately jumps into danger to help his grandmother. Can you talk about leaning into that kind of bravery and heroism with this character who, for all intents and purposes is an eight-year-old?
Siobhan Thompson: Yes. I think that one of the things that I love about eight year olds, or at least this specific type of eight year old, is that they are often incredibly fearless. And a lot of that is because they have no idea that they can die. And they aren’t really thinking about the future, and they’re not analyzing life in that way of, well, if I do this, I could hurt myself. It’s my grandma’s in danger, I gotta help her and I can. They often think that they are more capable than they are. Which is adorable and very cute. And also, just eight year olds have such a very defined sense of justice. It’s very black or white, in a way again, that’s very fun to play. And very, I hope fun to watch.
I remember at eight years old was the peak time where I was like, can you read us a grim fairy tale but I want the glory version, when the gory version where the people who have bad get put in a barrel and then there’s nails put in the barrel and that gets rolled down the hill because that’s what should happen to bad people. Whereas adults, you’re like, well, actually, there’s like nuance to that and maybe they’re bad, they’re doing bad things to this person for a reason.
Maybe they got hurt as a child and they should actually… but when you’re eight, you’re like, No, put him in a barrel and fill it with nails and roll down a hill and they should die. I don’t know that’s just very fun to play, but also eight year olds are very, they do have incredibly fast reflexes, they are very nimble, and good at jumping around. I feel like we underestimate children of that age a lot. And if we let them they would be more astonishing than they are allowed to be currently in our current society. I think.
I agree with you. I went through a haunted house yesterday, and my friend’s nine-year-old was fine while I was terrified. The set design is next level the shadow puppet animation the bear. How has that been?
Siobhan Thompson: It’s so amazing and they do such a good job of hiding that. We had no idea that a full puppet animation was going to start playing. It was just blue and then suddenly it was just a full movie happening behind us. They hide the minis. They are so good. They’re locked down we have no idea what is going to happen until we step into that dome. And the work that they did I mean every season they outdo themselves and it’s so impressive. It’s just amazing to me and this bear is maybe the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen. It was so disgusting. I kept on having to touch it.
What did the email say that Aabria sent you guys?
Siobhan Thompson: It’s somewhere deep in Gmail, but, she did a very good job of being like, “Hey, just so you know there’s gonna be something nasty.” I think it was a body horror warning. If you if you have problems with body horror, there will be body horror.
It was more of an FYI.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, it was a warning that happened before we started playing because I think that at least some of the battle maps had been discussed and that was definitely something that Aabria really wanted to do. So when she asked us to play she was Like, just so you know, it’ll be it’ll be gross and gory.
It was gnarly. I don’t know how you guys did that. I had to pause and walk away for a second.
Siobhan Thompson: Oh yeah, I bet.
That was insane. And then we have Fantasy High: Junior Year coming back, which I’m very excited for.
Siobhan Thompson: I am too. I am excited for you guys to watch. It was really fun to do. It’s a real, it’s a goof fest of a season. It’s really silly, goofy, silly, funny, goofy times.
That’s the best for it. That’s exactly how it should be.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, but it was so fun. It took us a while to get back to it, because we really wanted to make sure that it was the right story and the right ideas. I think it was, it was really, really fun. There’s some really great fun new mechanics. Some of the battles that we did were just so clever and so fun to play in and really, really memorable. I am really trying not to give you anything specific because the Dimension 20 fans are the best detectives in the world. I think it’s really good. I remember we had a really good time making it and that’s all I can go by.
I’m sure it’ll be good. Fantasy High is always great. That’s one of those ones that I watched very early on in finding Dimension 20 and that’s one of the ones that got me hooked right away.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, it’s funny. It’s one of those, when we recorded that first season, we really had no idea. We had no idea if it would work and I just remember coming out of the old College Humor building at like, 11 at night. And all of us walking down the street going, is this good? I think maybe this is good. I think we’re making something. This feels good. Right? Because you never quite know, but also after as many years as we’ve been doing this you start to get an inkling of like, oh, maybe this is one of the good ones.
Yeah, I mean, you guys are 20 seasons in now. What is that like?
Siobhan Thompson: It’s wild. I mean, they need to let Brennan rest. That poor man. Hardest working man in show business. It’s wild that there’s so much of it already. It makes me very happy that I get to do it. I really feel very lucky. Especially as an actor I don’t really audition anymore, because I mostly write and then I get my acting needs out on Dimension 20. But auditioning for stuff it’s so annoying.
As an actor, you’re like, oh, here I am auditioning for these same often unfunny roles. And in Dimension 20 it’s so freeing to be able to be like, I can play anyone. I can play an heiress and then I can go and play an eight year old boy. And I’m allowed, they let me. The let me do anything. They’ll let me do what I want. I can touch the bear.
I think exploring mental health through Adaine is so cool, and then on the complete opposite side, Jaysohn’s going, “Watch me jump off a rock,” and just getting pummeled by his sister. Perfect.
Siobhan Thompson: Fun is the thing that I’m always chasing. Even in more serious stories like Burrow’s End I feel like as long as we’re having fun at the table. And fun doesn’t necessarily have to mean… there are very serious moments in Burrow’s End, but it’s still fun to play a serious moment. As long as we’re having fun, I think it’s fun to watch. And that’s always what I try and make sure. Is this going to be fun? It’s just going to be fun for six or ten or twenty episodes.
I feel like one of the weird advantages that ADHD gives you is because you get so bored so easily, for me anyway, I get bored very, very easily. So as long as I’m not boring myself, I’m probably not boring other people.
It’s a weirdly helpful litmus test.
Siobhan Thompson: When your storyteller, yeah. It’s like, well, I’m bored. Maybe I need to add some other little piece of flavor in here. It’s like a useful, almost like a divining rod for me.
It’s working.
Siobhan Thompson: Thank you. Thank you. And I hope that it continues to. I hope that we get to keep making this for years, because it really, really, really puts the rest of my work to shame. It really is so much more fun than anything else. Being in a writers room, it’s great and I feel very proud of that work. But it’s very wild going from writers rooms where you’re taking two weeks to two months to craft a story. And then going over to Dimension 20 and crafting the same amount of story or more in two hours. It’s very, it’s weird.
Can you talk about playing with a familiar table like the Intrepid Heroes versus the Stupendous Stoats? It’s people that you played with before, but a new makeup and some newbies to the dome.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, it was different in a way that was really fun. It felt much more like the theater kids season. It felt like, I said this in an interview earlier, but it really felt like doing a play in a way that other seasons haven’t. We did it really quickly. Somebody got COVID and then we had to shoot the whole thing in like 10 days. And we all kind of went a little more extra than we do normally then in Intrepid Heroes seasons of hair, makeup, and clothes.
I don’t know it just felt very much more like we got to put on the school play because this is it. This is my thing for the year and it was delightful. Everybody was so good. That you can really trust fall into them and know that they’re going to catch you. Which was great. Much less ribbing than an Intrepid Heroes season. Intrepid Heroes seasons, because we know each other so well, we’re much meaner to each other when the cameras aren’t rolling and also when the cameras are rolling. We’re horrible to each other.
And especially to Murph, poor Murph. he loves it, he loves to be roasted. He gives what he gets. There’s a lot more zingers an Intrepid Heroes seasons. I think maybe also partly because we were playing a family. It was very supportive. Everybody was so good at checking in with each other and it was really sweet.
Is there a specific dynamic in this season that was surprisingly more fun than you expected to play with?
Siobhan Thompson: It’s all fun, but I especially loved playing the relationship between Jaysohn and his grandma. It was just really surprising to me. I just sort of hadn’t thought about it that much. I only grew up with one grandmother and she definitely didn’t have favorites or if she did she was not open about it. She’s very, very much like I love all of my grandchildren. And to have a grandmother who’s like, oh, I can win this woman’s love. This is a competition and she’s made it very clear was really fun to play with.
Yeah, Erika as the grandmother is shockingly hilarious yet scary in the best way.
Siobhan Thompson: Yeah, they absolutely killed it. Of this, if you’re on her good side she’ll give you anything you want. And if you piss her off even a little bit, then you’re in so much trouble. You’re just in so much trouble. It’s so bad. Grandma’s so mad at me.
Can you talk about playing with Rashawn and Jasper who are newer to the dome?
Siobhan Thompson: Again, they just killed it so much. I was so impressed with both of them. They’re such great, they brought so much depth to both of these characters. They’re such incredible, intuitive actors that it was really, really nice to have. Both of them are really experienced, well trained theater actors. It was really nice having that at the table and having that sort of depth of knowledge at the table and depth of experience. Which it’s just a slightly different skill set than the rest of us who are all improv people.
Which I don’t know if I can point to any specific moment where that came out. It just was imbued throughout both of their performances. Neither of them are afraid to like, Hey, we’re going there. I felt like their performances were both very brave. And, I remember both of them. There were moments where they said something I was like, Oh, I would never, so brave. You’re saying it, you’re saying the thing out loud. It makes me feel very lovey dovey. It makes me feel very actor-y to be like, these actors they’re incredible. But they really are. They’re great.
This season is so great. We’re only two episodes, and I’ve watched both of them at least twice.
Siobhan Thompson: Oh, great. And they only get better. I honestly think the story that Aabria managed to weave for this season is really virtuosic. She’s so talented. I can’t wait to get to sit at another of her tables, fingers crossed, God willing. It’s just a really beautifully woven story. I’m so excited and I don’t think anybody, I’ve been monitoring a little bit on on the on the DL just looking at what people have said, and there are people with some pretty good guesses, but also nobody has any idea what’s gonna happen. You got no idea what’s going to happen.
Jaysohn in episode 2 going, “All of my friends are dead,” and then so quickly moving past that was just the perfect moment for the season for me.
Siobhan Thompson: Yes, there’s some darkness here. It was really fun to play in that space, but also as a child that lives so absolutely, totally in the moment that whatever he is in is normal to him. It’s fun to hold both of those truths in your hands at the same time.
I’m excited to see more of you as Jaysohn, because I think Jaysohn is my favorite this season.
Siobhan Thompson: It just truly was so much fun playing a little scamp. Especially, I love playing with the Intrepid Heroes, but there are enough chaos players on that table that I feel like I end up being somewhat more of a voice of reason more than not. We all have our chaotic moments, but I feel like more often than not me and Murph are like, okay, what are we doing here? LEverybody calm down. So it’s been fun. Both of these side quests I went into it being like, how can I be a goblin?
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Like I said, You guys are so great with this. I’m so excited for more Burrow’s End. I’m excited for Fantasy High: Junior Year. All of it!
Siobhan Thompson: Hey, we keep on making content as long as you guys keep watching it. Brennan is locked in a dungeon and they won’t let him see his friends.
I don’t know how Brennan functions.
Siobhan Thompson: None of us do. None of us do. I worry about him, but he seems very happy. So I don’t know. I just, I think I’m much lazy and don’t want to work that hard, but good for him that he does.
Yeah, I agree. Just let him continue until he can’t.
Siobhan Thompson: Let him cook. Let the boy cook.
About Dimension 20: Burrow’s End
Burrow’s End takes place in the Blue Forest where a certain family of stoats comprised of matriarch Ava, adult sisters Tula and Viola, Viola’s husband Thorn Vale, and Tula’s children Jaysohn and Lila find their once peaceful existence threatened by forces both natural and otherwise.
Check out our other Dimension 20’s Burrow’s End interview with Aabria Iyengar and check back next week for an all-new interview!
The first two episodes of Dimension 20’s Burrow’s End are available now on Dropout with new episodes debuting every Wednesday.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
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