She Kills Monsters
“Girl nerds are the rarest kinds of nerds.” So says a girl, just stage right, illuminated by the spotlight, mysterious, in a hooded medieval gown, introducing you to “She Kills Monsters” premiering Thursday November 14 at American Canyon High School.
“She Kills Monsters” is a Dungeons and Dragons fantasy. D&D for short, it is a game which came out in the 1970’s that gave geeky and nerdy high school boys from Irvine to Scarsdale something to do in their parent’s basement on nights when the more popular kids were out partying.
It was the first famous “role playing game” or RPG, a type of game where players assume a character, and role play that character throughout the game. The game is set up by a “Dungeon Master” or DM who sets the ground rules. The players first assume characters - bard or cleric, druid or paladin - who have certain powers or constraints. Then they have adventures, basically telling each other stories about what is happening. When they come to a crossroads, the DM will roll a special die - sometimes six-sided, sometimes twenty - that will determine who dies, or who lives, or whether they can unlock the treasure chest. Games have been known to last days and can be all consuming.
The play centers on Agnes, played by Daniela Wilder, whose sister, Tilly, dies in a car crash before the play begins. Agnes never knew Tilly, played by Lorraine Sandoval, that well, but when she is cleaning out her room, she finds a D&D playbook written by Tilly. Not knowing what it is, she takes it to Chuck, played by a totally geeky Jakob Welch, who explains it to her. Chuck and Agnes then begin to play the game Tilly has written, and the adventure unfolds on stage.
Qui Nguyen, the Vietnamese-American playwright, chose to set the play in Athens, Ohio in 1995, otherwise known as, my junior year in high school. So, sprinkled into the plot are many references to the “whatever” generation: musical acts that were huge in the ‘90s - The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins, 10,000 Maniacs and George Michael; and the TV shows - ER with early George Clooney, Quantum Leap and Twin Peaks.
This play would have been impossible for Generation X to perform because of one - or three - reasons: three out of four main characters are lesbians. Agnes finds out from playing the game that her sister likes girls. Tilly, as a Paladin, leads a trio of thin, beautiful, devilish, lesbian warriors who brandish swords and axes and shields. They harass demons, are seduced by cheerleader succubi - the plural of succubus - and outwit a forest fairy. They are strong, unapologetic women who are perfectly happy in a world without testosterone or chest hair.
What is amazing to me is that there is no hint of shame or embarrassment over these character’s sexual orientation. It’s taken for granted, and even celebrated. I suppose, though, “coming out” stories have been so overdone that they are now clichè - things that are no longer taboo are no longer dramatic. So its tremendously refreshing to see that, one: the play itself has a strong, confident lesbian story that is not about repression, persecution or self-discovery; two: that this play is being performed in a high school, when typically high school students, at least the ones with whom I went to school, are at the apex of their intolerance, and these students are anything but; and three: that the kids take seriously the play, as a play, regardless of the sexual orientation of the characters.
Times, certainly, have changed.
“She Kills Monsters” premiers in the auditorium at American Canyon High School Friday November 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30PM and Sunday November 17th at 2:00PM. Tickets are $8 for students and $12 for adults and can be purchased at the door.
