ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The Montford Park Players conclude their 53rd season, “A Season of Lunatics, Lovers, & Poets,” with “She Kills Monsters,” written by Qui Nguyen and directed by Deanna Braine Smith.

“She Kills Monsters” will be staged at 7:30 p.m., Friday to Sunday, through Oct. 25 at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St.

“She Kills Monsters” review

“She Kills Monsters” is the story of Agnes, a young woman struggling with the death of her little sister, Tilly, after Tilly and their parents are killed in a car accident. The sisters were never close, separated by an age gap and completely different sets of interests, Agnes complacently “average” and mainstream and Tilly wrapped up in the alternative, offbeat and geeky, especially the roleplaying game “Dungeons & Dragons.” Nonetheless, when Agnes finds an autobiographical campaign Tilly wrote for her “D&D” group, she sets out to play it, determined to learn more about her little sister. As Agnes plays through the game, enlisting the help of Tilly’s friend, Dungeon Master Chuck, she meets a version of Tilly she never knew, learning there was much more to her sister than Agnes ever realized.

While Nguyen’s play was first staged in 2011 and set in 1995, the show felt right at home in the hands of the Montford Park Players. As it turns out, a play about geeks roleplaying in medieval outfits was the perfect fit for a Shakespeare-loving troupe of actors.

“She Kills Monsters” is the final show of the Montford Park Players’ 53rd season.

The two performers at the center of “She Kills Monsters,” Trinity Smith Keel as Agnes and Gaia Eggert as Tilly, are extraordinary. While “She Kills Monsters” has comedy in spades, broadly poking fun at 90s grunge culture and geekdom while slipping in the occasional clever innuendo or if-you-know-you-know “D&D” gag, its true accomplishment is the deep, emotional resonance of the characters at its center.

Experiencing the dynamic Keel and Eggert had as the pair of estranged sisters was akin, in the best way possible, to being trapped in the backseat of a minivan with a pair of bickering siblings. The two are immediately successful at selling utter realism in the broken relationship between Agnes and Tilly and they soar when the story reaches its emotional climax.

For nearly the entirety of the final 15 minutes of “She Kills Monsters,” I found myself laughing through tears, torn between cackling along with the campaign and having my heart broken by Keel and Eggert’s incredible performances.

Left to right: Rachel Jones as Lilith, Trinity Smith Keel as Agnes, Gaia Eggert as Tilly and Kate McGunagle as Kaliope.

The story of Tilly and Agnes would be nothing, however, without their supporting cast.

Rachel Jones, Kate McGunagle and Joshua Kerber rounded out Agnes and Tilly’s “D&D” party as a demon warrior, a dark elf and a slacker demon overlord, with Jones and McGunagle delivering their high fantasy dialogue with hilarious élan while Kerber shone in his droll delivery. All three were dressed to the nines in fantasy costuming by Emily Dake and Danielle Allen, who further demonstrated their talents with the “fight corps” ensemble cast, adorned with enough goblin garb, leather straps and flowing tunics to put any renaissance festival to shame.

The funniest performances of the night were contributed by Will Storrs as Chuck and Brooks Wallace as Steve, the latter a recurring bit character who began to elicit cheers from the audience any time he appeared onstage. In the world of Tilly’s campaign, Steve is an ineffectual adventurer routinely and gruesomely murdered by the foes Tilly, Agnes and their party encounter. Several of these opponents, including a massive “gelatinous cube” and a five-headed dragon, were brought to life by incredible puppets and defeated with elaborate fight choreography contributed by Smith, Wallace, assistant director Gabby Bailey and Jon Robinson. The swordplay and squibs in “She Kills Monsters” were ubiquitous and impressive.

Brooks Wallace’s Steve tries his hand against a flesh-eating “gelatinous cube.”

While this season of “lunatics, lovers and poets” has been a fantastic run of shows, “She Kills Monsters” may be the very best of them. Taking their cue from the title, the Montford Park Players killed it.