It was surprising — at least to this reporter — to see a packed house at the South by Southwest (SXSW) world premiere of Ren Faire on March 9. It's not a sexy topic; a docuseries detailing a theatrical leadership change at the Texas Renaissance Festival. But the fantasy nerds are out in droves at this festival, as proven by last year's opening film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Two more concrete details must have contributed. The Texas Renaissance Festival is purportedly the largest in the United States, so naturally its many fans were eager to see behind the curtain. And presciently, audience members surely realized a film co-produced by Uncut Gems' Josh and Benny Safdie (among others) would be a unique hit.

The three-part series, directed by South Floridian filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, introduces viewers to the festival's octogenarian founder and leader, George Coulam, a.k.a. King George. This eccentric, fervent planner has determined he has nine years left to live, and would like to spend that time finding a (much younger) companion — which he can't do while managing a massive Renaissance faire.

Vying for King George's succession in the hour-long first episode are general manager and former Shakespeare actor Jeffrey Baldwin, and "kettle-corn kingpin" Louie Migliaccio. Although King George defies categorization, Baldwin and Migliaccio are strongly archetypical.

Baldwin, portrayed as naive and sycophantic (think Dwight Shrute from The Office in the salesman's more docile moments), falls under a more sympathetic gaze in this portion of the series. Migliaccio — over-caffeinated, in what could have been a zealous product placement deal with Red Bull — is a villain from one of his very first lines, lauding capitalism within the utopic space.

The tone of the series is auspiciously similar to one of this decade's largest streaming hits, Netflix's Tiger King. The driving character in both: a charismatic iconoclast with a very niche and all-consuming profession, an insular world full of disciples, and a country-flavored political streak. (King George is also the mayor of Todd Mission, the town incorporated just to house the fest.)

Ren Faire is unexpectedly and deeply funny in the way only true stories can be. Whereas Tiger King's Joe Exotic seemed primed to burn everything down for a sincere, if paranoia-riddled dream; King George is a businessman who's kind of over the whole thing. He's got his Viagra, 15 dating profiles, a vision board, and a team of angel statues with whom he consults. Both kings spearheaded their respective series with a natural abundance of absurd one-liners.

The film draws an explicit parallel between its real-life drama and Shakespeare's King Lear. King George, Baldwin, Migliaccio — all three longtime performers in some respect — are skilled in embodying big characters, and this comes out in the "subjective reality" of the film, as termed by Oppenheim in the premier's post-film talkback. That's built through cinematic filming, artistic editing, and even dream-like reenactments.

"The thing that's amazing about Renaissance fairs in general, as a culture unto itself, is there's this desire to escape — leave your life behind for a few hours and just imbibe and be in a different world," Oppenheim said. "So I knew there was going to be something thematically or stylistically [that] should be happening with that."

Referencing the onscreen conversation about the Shakespearean plot and Baldwin's acting past, he added, "I started to realize that all of these people that live and work inside the Renaissance Festival are basically inside their own King Lear. And they know it; They're aware of it. ... What does that do to you, when you know that there's this sort of meta-textual thing that's happening?"

Although the surface tension (so far) is in the rivalry between Baldwin and Migliaccio, King George is still at the center of this particular solar system. And as any good movie or play would showcase, it's not the logistics that make the story, but the underlying emotional truth.

"I think the thing that's so important about this and everyone that's involved in it," said Oppenheim, "[is that] everyone loves this place as much as George once did. ... He says he's done with it, but is he? Can he give it up? When you spend your whole life being in control of a whole legion of people, what does that do to you?"

Ren Fairewill debut for the public on HBO in summer 2024.