Sword fights, fire-breathing dragons, a quest - all a bit out of the ordinary for the Abbey Theatre Studio.

But if the audience reaction was anything to go by on Tuesday night, the Company of Ten’s decision to stage the fantasy adventure She Kills Monsters was a good one.

The Studio is where the Company of Ten performs plays that are out of the mainstream, unfamiliar to many theatre audiences and suitable for being acted in the round.

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen is all of those and more besides.

It is the tale of High School teacher Agnes who loses her parents and sister Tilly in a car accident and struggles to relate to the younger sister she realises she barely knew.

Then she finds a file demonstrating that Tilly was not only a key player in Dungeons and Dragons but had also created a game scenario.

Choosing to follow it, Agnes finds herself in a fantasy land of dragons, monsters and evil. But in reality, the play tackles many more real-life themes such as death and grief, friendship and sexual identity.

It would be easy to argue that She Kills Monsters is now dated when Dungeons and Dragons has been replaced by violent computer games, avatars and the like.

But because its themes are still as pertinent today as they were when Qui Nguyen wrote it in 2011, it is just as relevant.

Realistically, only one member of the Company of Ten could have directed it and that is Roger Bartlett, a professional fight director in his working life.

And the fight scenes are terrific, helped greatly by the huge enthusiasm of the cast as they hacked and impaled each other.

But his direction brings far more to it than that and weird as many might say the play is, it is totally compelling as an example of how everyone has their personal demons to fight.

Tanishia Gearing as Agnes and Manika Sweeney as Tilly head a strong yet youthful cast and I particularly enjoyed watching Deniz Simsek Duhig and Eva Shipley as the evil twins.

But all the cast deserved the applause they got at the end and if nothing else, She Kills Monsters demonstrates that there is a wealth of young talent out there. I’m sure the Company of Ten and other drama groups will call on them regularly in the future.

She Kills Monsters runs until Saturday, February 3 and tickets are available from www.abbeytheatre.org.uk.