She Kills Monsters By Qui Nguyen Analysis

Review of She Kills Monsters
She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen tells the story of a girl named Agnes who delves into a game of Dungeons and Dragons crafted by her late sister, Tilly, in order to get to know her better postmortem. Through a series of comedic dialogue, action-packed adventure and shocking revelation, She Kills Monsters crafts a relatable chronicle of regret, taking family members for granted, and desiring escapism when one’s livelihood is restricted. Despite being largely comedic in nature, the play tackles a number of topical themes such as the bullying and isolation of LGBTQIA+ adolescence. The audience is allowed a peek into this isolated space, in which they see how misunderstanding and indifference forces a girl into familial

In the very beginning of the play the audience is told explicitly that all of Agnes’ family died in a car accident, and later, while playing D&D with Tilly’s friend Chuck, Agnes discovers that Tilly was gay and being bullied for it. The way in which this was developed was especially effective, in part by the fact that all of Agnes’ revelations come unexpected even to the audience (which recaptures the audience’s attention amidst all the comedy), but also because the structure felt very realistic to how a group of geeky teenagers combatting a conflict might actually deal with it (e.g. coat it under juvenile humor and escape into a fantasy world of their own creation in order to cope with their bleak reality). This makes the play and its progression feel very topical, as if the play was written by Tilly herself, or someone her age. In some instances, it can be difficult for playwrights to tell a story with efficacy about a different age group than the playwrights themselves are; as such, certain facets of the play (especially humor and contemporary issues) may fall flat to the people in the audience who are in the same age group as the characters in the play. For Nguyen to be able to achieve this feat allows for the play to tell its story with impressive efficacy. In terms of comedy, I think the play’s attempts at humor have the potential to