Review: She Kills Monsters by Mary Moody Northen Theatre
by Michael Meigs

I went prepared. I took with me my son-in-law, who was intensely engaged in the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons in the 1990's, the period in which Qui Nguyen's colorfully entertaining and surprisingly deep She Kills Monsters is set. Though in fact, he wasn't much help during the actual performance, for he was riveted on the action and geeking on the references (some of which the playwright deliberately misstates so as to dupe the protagonist). I was just as intent.

 

She Kills Monsters was first staged Off-Off-Broadway in 2011 and was picked up soon afterward by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. The American Alliance for Theatre and Education gave it an award in 2013, and it has been done by many schools and colleges since then. CTXLiveTheatre records show this is the nineth production of Nguyen's piece in Central Texas; the first of those was in 2016 by the Alley Cat Players of Austin's Liberal Arts and Sciences high school (LASA).

 

Equity artist Amber Quick appears early as narrator to set the scene and late to wrap things up; in the interim she inhabits the role of Vera, the sharp tongued impatient high school guidance counselor with the tough exterior and proverbial heart of gold.

 

The action—and there's plenty of it—is carried (no, rushed forward) by an impressively talented cast of university students. The concept seems straightforward: an automobile accident has left Agnes Evans alone and bewildered. Her parents are gone; so is his her much younger sister Tilly. Agnes, now a high school teacher, realizes she scarcely knew sixteen-year-old Tilly. She finds a mysterious red-cover notebook and seeks out someone who can interpret it for her.

 

A couple of plot points failed to connect for me initially. First, I didn't immediately realize that Agnes was older and a teacher at the same school. That piece of exposition is essential, especially when all save one of the players onstage are approximately the same age. A second quibble: how did Agnes identify the right person to interpret Tilly's notes? A sentence or two, perhaps even a moment of silent realization, could have establishedhow the very non-D&D Agnes got the idea of visiting the shop of a Dungeon Master.

 

 

But putting that aside, once Victoria Turner as Agnes persuades DM "Chuck" (Nomar de la Torre) to initiate the game that isT illy's unintended legacy, the immaterial becomes very much material. Before our eyes, those notes become a Quest through the realm of "New Landia."  Tilly reappears, in the persona of Tillius, a twentieth-level palladin. Blonde and short of stature, Harper Schreiner-Brown gives Tillius stature that's not just height; she's confident, a leader with a cape, sturdy sword, and silver boots. Her devoted companions are vividly non-ordinary females: a goth, an elf, a faery. Tillius is on a quest to recover a soul. Her own.

 

 

Agnes, dubbed "Agnes the Ordinary" by the narrator, is almost overcome by the weirdness, but of course she is lured into play and into Tillius's quest. Victoria Turner gives her role as Agnes depth and consistency. Her responses to surprises, doubts, and dawning understanding are convincing and evoke our sympathies.

 

Much of the fun comes from the contrast between the fantastical, unpredictable Quest and Ordinary Life—where Agnes must deal with students, her friend Vera the counselor, and her boyfriend Mark, happily non-committal despite a three-year-long relationship. More poignant than these, however, is Agnes's realization that she knew only very little of her little sister's life, dreams, and emotions.

 

Loss does that. Someone dies and disappears and you wonder. Not only why (factually or philosophically) but also what you might have learned or shared, opportunities forever vanished. Who did that person love? What did she want? What secret desires was Tilly pursuing through role play?

 

For the audience the Quest is a frolic and entertainment, carried out by strikingly handsome young persons. They enjoy th terrific energy and commitment of Tilly's henchwomen Kaliope (Camilia Escobar), Lilith (Chloe Nichols) and Farrah the Faerie (Silvana Rivera). Nichols iis particularly touching in her goth fantasy role and as Tilly's high school friend IRL. Andrew Heinrich's fight coordination is fast and furious, often filling the stage with flailing adversaries. Jack Young's a suitably goofy Miles the boyfriend, and Jackson Childs as highschooler Steve and that big-hatted would-be wizard is entertaining throughout.

 

Susan Branch Towne's costuming and Kiryat Jearim Castillo's puppet design keep the Quest brilliantly colorful and challenging. 

 

She Kills Monsters is a lark but also a meditation. The playwright has reworked it into other versions, including a somewhat milder "Young Adventurers' Edition". Even so, the play periodically runs into the censors of school boards. In 2020 a production was abruptly canceled because supervisors of education were alarmed the work portrayed young women attracted to one another.

 

Exactly the same thing is happening right now in Akron, Ohio. This morning theatre writer Howard Sherman reported,

 

The Copley [High School] Thespians were doing the school-geared "Young Adventurer's Edition," not the original text, but that apparently didn't keep the censors at bay. Now the school has announced a replacement: one of the countless adaptations of "Alice in Wonderland," hardly a substitute for Qui's popular saga. It shows the willingness of school administrators to infantilize high schools in order to stave off the slightly whiff of controversy, rather than standing up for work which will benefit the students – and which countless schools have presented without incident.

 

Controversy is in the eyes of the beholder. MMNT's She Kills Monsters is fun, entertaining, and an honest look at growing up.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

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She Kills Monsters
by Qui Nguyen
Mary Moody Northen Theatre

September 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26 , 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
September 20 and 27 at 2:00 p.m.

Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward’s University campus, 3001 S. Congress Ave., Austin, TX 

Adult single tickets are $32, educator/senior tickets are $30, and student tickets are $18.50..

Tickets are available by calling the MMNT Box Office at 512-448-8484 or online at stedwards.edu/mary-moody-northen-theatre/buy-tickets

Parking is free.