Brisbane review - Dungeons and Dragons played as “She Kills Monsters”.

By  Lilian Harrington

Company: Villanova Players, Start Ups.

Writer: Qui Nguyen

Director: Brenna Corben

Location: The Ron Hurley Theatre, 28 Tallowwood St. Seven Hills

Season: 2 - 4 May 7 30 and 2 pm

Bookings: Try Bookings

Youth theatre surprises and entertains the audience with a fresh approach and an encouraging array of ideas and techniques. Start Ups “She Kills Monsters” the Youth Division at Villanova Players, provides an opportunity for youth to experiment and explore.

Each year youth at Villanova is given an opportunity to stage a production by themselves. Start Ups provides encouragement for young artists, aged  between 18 and 30 years , who are keen to gain stage experience and “strut their stuff” on the boards. She Kills Monsters is an award winning production, written by Qui Nguyen.  In 2013, it was awarded the AATE Distinguished Play Writing Award and this play is a great choice for Start Ups. It has been well directed by Brenna Corben, a young director, who has given it some careful insight. The first night audience saw a keen group of young people, many of whom were avid “gamers”.

The play is based on the game of Dungeon and Dragons. It tells the story of Agnes (Alyssa Byrne) who wants to know more about her late sister’s weird world; to do this she dives into Tilly’s (Genevieve Whittred) hidden world of Dungeon and Dragons and looks into the epic battles played out with weird and quirky monsters and takes part in some heroic quests, all of which had become a very real part of Tilly’s fantasy world.

Agnes is the opposite of Tilly in every way. She would be classed as a “normal girl”, whereas, Tilly would have been seen as a geek and a gamer. In order to understand her sister’s life more, Agnes challenges herself to go through Tilly’s fantasy world and play the Dungeons and Dragons game and so by doing this she discovers a lot about her late sister. As she involves herself more in Tilly’s adventures, she learns something about her inner self and learns about her own special identity  through the game, so she finds what her true self really is.

This production is seen as a “comedic romp” into the world of fantasy, adventure, role play, and games; It has humour, fast action and emotional depths. Nguyen has looked at the themes of acceptance and the influence and power of the imagination. For our youth and especially gamers, it is described as “a high octane dramatic comedy”, a fantasy full of homicidal fairies, nasty ogres and a dive into“90s”pop culture.

The staging was kept simple and the set was laid out on different levels, which helped to give an edge to the movement, action and rhythm of the colourful ensemble work in each scene, and it indicated changes in the dynamics with power and possession held by the fantasy creatures and their opponents. There was an effective use of masks, puppetry and costumes. The scenes were lit with a low light intensity, to affect a realistic “shady” atmosphere. The audio was hard to hear at times, and there was fast dialogue which kept everyone alert. The audience responded well to the humour and the intention, which grew clearer as the production progressed. The talented and insightful Alyssa Byrne, showed commitment in the role. Young Genevieve Whittred as Tilly, contrasted well with her and delivered a very authentic characterisation.

Despite the limited season of “She Kills Monsters”, Brisbane audiences can look forward to future experimental productions from Villanova Player’s, Start Ups.