Photos: Good Luck Macbeth’s ‘She Kills Monsters’ blends grief with Dungeons & Dragons

By: Taylor Harker | Photos by Mary Claire Boucher and Bob Conrad

Good Luck Macbeth’s rendition of “She Kills Monsters” is action-packed with laughter and intense fight scenes that keeps the audience on its toes. The story is an exploration of grief, sisterhood and the power of imagination.

The play is a love letter written by Agnes Evans, a high school teacher thrust into the depths of despair after losing her entire family, including her beloved younger sister, Tilly, in a tragic car accident.

Agnes’s journey is one of discovery as she delves into Tilly’s passion for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, a realm she previously dismissed as a silly fantasy world. Little did she know what she was stepping into.

The game uncovered some secrets about Tilly that Agnes didn’t know and gave her an appreciation for her sister’s creativity and brilliance. Tilly had meticulously crafted an entire campaign within the Dungeons & Dragons universe, a testament to her love for the game and the people she shared it with.

As Agnes immerses herself in Tilly’s world, she begins to understand the depth of her sister’s legacy and the reason she was so popular within this community. Through completing different levels of the game, Agnes confronts her grief and discovers strength and resilience.

Each character, each quest, becomes a mirror reflecting the complexities of Agnes’s own life. The game leads Agnes to some harsh truths that she needed to understand in the real world. It also gives her a deep understanding of her sister that she wasn’t able to see before.

“She Kills Monsters” stands as a tribute to a bond between sisters and the transformative power of storytelling for healing and revitalizing the human spirit. Through the lens of Agnes’s perspective, audiences are reminded that, in life’s darkest moments, there exists a beacon of hope in the cherished memories we hold dear and the stories we choose to remember.