The President Visits LA

Director Shinshin Yuder Tsai’s complete commitment to a low-tech aesthetic pretty much moots any complaints one might make about the mise en scène. She Kills Monsters is what it is, and — for better or worse — production value won’t change that one bit. In fact, Tsai gets some mileage from playing up such limitations.

But there’s nothing anyone can do about the play’s limited messaging. Granted, there’s something touching about Tilly’s world creation as wish fulfillment (e.g., she was gay and, while she never really came out in her young life, in D&D she openly makes out with her hot demon girlfriend in a realm where literally everyone is gay), but it doesn’t really go anywhere. So she felt disempowered in life and created a world in which she’s a badass. Great. And…?

To be sure, I am often unmoved by what passes for powerful in pop culture. Perhaps She Kills Monsters falls into that very broad category, particularly with nerds (not a disparaging term in context) like Tilly who venture into imaginary worlds partly because of how hard this one can be on those who don’t fit snugly within the hegemonic boundaries of the so-called “normal.” That alone may be of value, because everyone should feel like they belong.

She Kills Monsters at Long Beach Playhouse Times: Friday, Saturday 8 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. through March 25

Cost: $20 to $30

Details: 562-494-1014; LBplayhouse.org

Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

Struggle

ness. I stopped into a 7-Eleven after doing some interviews and began to shoot the blue with the clerk while I made a cup of coffee and grabbed some peanut butter crackers (my struggle meal that morning).

He asked me not to name him, but he told me that the real struggle meals are made inside of correctional facilities. I asked him if inmates really make “spread,” a concoction of soggy ramen, chips, a chopped beef stick, cheese spread, and pickles merged into a loaf. He confirmed this.

“A guy in there taught me how to make menudo with the stuff from commissary,” the clerk said, referring to the store that inmates can access to buy snacks and other goods.

“You take pork cracklings, the shrimp ramen packets, corn nuts, hot sauce and sardines and then mix it up and it actually tastes like the real thing, with some pickles too.”

I didn’t pry into his criminal background but was astonished by the ingenuity employed by people who are incarcerated to use processed foods to prepare struggle meals similar to what they’d eat on the outside by choice.

The United States Department of Agriculture stated that 33 million Americans, including 5 million children, are food insecure as of 2022. This is not right but makes one more appreciative of the fact that they did not go to sleep hungry as a child even if all they had to eat was rice. The types of foods we ate when we had very little shape us in a way. Tomahawk steaks taste better when you’ve come from ramen noodles and sugar bread.

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