By Tomas Alonso
Co-Arts & Culture Editor

“She Kills Monsters” begins with a young English teacher named Agnes cleaning out her deceased little sister’s bedroom and ends with her plunging a sword into the heart of a dragon.

The adventuring party stands together for the first time. Left to right. Enzo Martin as Agnes, Addison Markwart as Lillith, Camden McCorkle as Tillius the Paladin, Jenny Hackenberger as Kalliope and Jakey Sparks as Orcus. Photos by Jackson Arterberry

The drama-comedy, written by Qui Nguyen, was directed by Clackamas Community College’s Allison Moon, associate professor of theater arts. Scene and lighting designer Chris Whitten transformed the stage with shocking effects and vivid colors, making incredible use of puppets, shadows and tricks.

Prop designer Tegan Richards and costume designer Aiden McFarland create convincing outfits for both dungeon crawlers and the everyday wear of the mid-1990s. The armor, weapons and puppets. In place of people in suits many of the monsters were played by puppets, including goblins on sticks controlled by shadowy stage hands Orion Moss, Evin McGill and Ashton Carter.

The play hits the mark, finding moments of comedy, romance and shock. Unafraid of controversial topics, the story tackles everything from sexuality to depression while balancing it well with quick quips and hard-hitting one liners. 

Agnes Evans, a high school English teacher in her early 20s, lost her sister and parents in a tragic car accident the night of her high school graduation. While still grieving, Agnes finds that her sister Tilly wrote a  Dungeons & Dragons “module,” a self-contained adventure designed for the Dungeon Master (DM) to run for players.

Unaware her sister even played the table top game, Agnes delves into the campaign searching for a connection with her sister. Through the lens of the campaign, Agnes battles a series of mystical enemies from bugbears and grungers to, yes, even a dragon all the while jumping back to the real world. 

Through a series of fights, conversations and personal growth all set to a ‘90s soundtrack, “She Kills Monsters” delivers on all fronts. 

Lead actress Enzo Martin plays Agnes to perfection. The show’s main character is a complex woman battling with grief, guilt and all the emotions those cause, while also thrust into a bizarre world she doesn’t understand. It’s an intense character to play, but Martin gives a convincing performance as a grief-stricken young woman on her way to becoming an adventurer. 

Enzo Martin stands center stage.

Agnes gets adopted into the adventurer party led by the equally impressive Camden McCorkle, who excels as Tilly/Tillius the Paladin. A great supporting cast includes performances by Jakey Sparks as Orcus, a demon who would rather be watching re-runs of “Friends” and Jenny Hackenberger as the serene elf Kalliope.

The group is rounded out by Addison Markwart as Tillius’ girlfriend, the hard rocking devil’s daughter Lillith. 

The dialogue is snappy, comedic and well-paced and put into great effect by the cast that never as much as hiccuped through the show.

The characters are all intriguing, eye-catching and fun but are rarely allowed to stretch their legs, never giving any one character enough time to develop even in the two-hour run time. This underutilization of interesting characters is sometimes distracting.

Chuck, played by David Hackenberger, is the game’s DM, meaning he runs the entire adventure and acts as all characters not played by one of the game’s participants. But he is used almost exclusively for comedic effect. Hackenberger combines a booming voice and well-timed quips that left me searching for more Chuck. 

Addison Markwart’s Lillith stands foreground to David Hackenberger’s Chuck.

While the play could have been a good way to show people that D&D stereotypes don’t have to be true, it just misses the mark. It weakly attempts to disprove major stereotypes, mainly tacking the idea that only geeks can play D&D. What it doesn’t disprove are some other major stereotypes with nearly all the players being relative social outcasts and all the in-game enemies being classic bully archetypes down to the evil cheerleaders who take form as homophobic Succubis demons.

The show is certainly worth the watch, for the incredible performances and stage design alone. But be warned, leave the D&D fanatic at home unless you like hearing annoyed scoffs every time someone casts a spell. 

“She Kills Monsters” runs Nov. 13 through Nov. 23, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and a 10 a.m. showing on Nov. 14, in the Niemeyer Osterman Theatre. 

Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for seniors (62+) and free for all students. Tickets are discounted by $1 if purchased online at clackamas.edu/theatre.