I have little experience or knowledge about theater, but whenever a show is being held, I try to go see it. A live performance will always draw me in.
“She Kills Monsters” tells the story of Agnes Evans and her attempts to get to know her sister, Tilly, after she was killed in a car accident. Agnes plays a game of “Dungeons & Dragons” that Tilly wrote, and finds out several things about her sister that she wouldn’t have known otherwise.
This play was hilarious, and I enjoyed watching it from start to finish. It also dealt with themes of grief and finding ways to feel comfortable in a world that will do anything to make you feel like an outsider. I liked the complexity of the storyline.
The Welsbacher Black Box Theatre was the perfect stage for this show. There wasn’t a very intricate set design, just one table at one end of the stage, but the stage never felt empty.
I liked how, even when Agnes’ character was playing D&D, Chuck, the dungeon master, was always sitting at the table, subtly reminding the audience that this was just a game.
Specifically, during the scene where Agnes comes to terms with the fact that she isn’t really talking to her sister, but just a character, the dramatic lighting enhances the emotional scene. The lighting added depth and drama to the scenes.
The costumes were also crafted in a way that felt accurate to the period and showed the personality of each character. The difference between the characters in the real world versus how they dressed in the game reinforced the kind of person each character was. I think the costumes for Orcus and Ronnie were the best example of that.
Orcus is a demon overlord and his costume was mostly red with some armour. Ronnie was dressed like a normal teenage boy. This difference shows how Ronnie wanted to be perceived, strong like a demon overlord, and how he actually was.
Agnes and Tilly never changed costumes during the show, and I think that was a great decision for their characters. For most of the show, Agnes doesn’t really understand why Tilly liked playing D&D, and I think having her dressed in normal clothes the whole time shows that aspect of her character well, because she thought Tilly would grow out of wanting to play the game eventually. And vice versa, Tilly is only seen in her character’s costume, which reinforces the fact that she only exists in D&D, due to her death in the real world.
I think the costumes looked well put together and thought out. Everyone looked exactly as you would imagine, just based on the description of the characters.
The use of music and sound effects worked really well with this production. Even during the intermissions, the songs that played fit the show and scenes perfectly.
The play was also just really funny. I think everyone in the cast did a great job of making sure all the jokes landed with the audience. A part that really stuck out to me was at the end of the first act when the characters encounter Farrah, a fairy and one of the bosses they have to defeat. The contrast between how she acted when she was first introduced and when she realized she had to fight the group was hilarious.
Also, the scene where the group has a dance battle with Evil Gabbi and Evil Tina was equally as funny.
Overall, I think this production was put together well, and all the aspects were well thought out by the directors and actors alike. It had me engaged the entire way through.
