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I think it’s
safe to say that most people have fears.
Some have them to the point of extreme,
and I guess these could be referred to as
phobias. More often than not, these fears
are about tangible things like heights,
enclosed spaces, snakes, or spiders. Then
there are those of us who have irrational
fears. We fear things that will never, ever
happen. I’m going to confess to having
one of those fears, and up until this point
I’ve only admitted it to my wife.
I have an irrational fear of being attacked
and eaten by the undead.
On the surface, this might seem silly, but
let me tell you there are times when I find
myself driving down country roads in the
middle of the night and in my mind’s
eye I can see zombies shambling up from
the sides of the road. I even start making
conscious decisions of what I would do if
they in fact DID start shambling towards
me. (Speeding up comes to mind…).
Even back when my daughter was born and
I'd get up in the middle of the night to
get a bottle for her, I used to look out
through our sliding glass doors to the field
behind the house and again, my imagination
ran a bit wild.
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Now, I realize I will never have to deal with
real zombies, shambling or otherwise, so the fear
does not get so bad as to lose sleep or hide under
the bed. I will admit to locking the bedroom door
from time to time, but this is more to give would-be
robbers a harder time getting in while I’m
sleeping (uh-huh, sure…). The really funny
thing is how I’ve dealt with this irrational
fear over the years. First and foremost is that
I watch any movies that I can on the subject (this
way I can learn what to do and what not to do
to survive a zombie attack), and have spent a
good number of years working as an effects artist
in the haunted house business. Yep, that’s
right. I surround myself with all manner of creatures,
monsters and zombies on nearly a daily basis.
Go figure. Of course, if any of the guys I work
with read this review and learn of my fear, my
life will become a living hell. (So, if any of
you ARE reading this, I’m uhhhh… just
making it up for the sake of this review.)
What all of this has to do with the new stage
production of Romero's "The Night of the
Living Dead" is that by writing about this,
it not only allows me a cathartic release of this
otherwise secret fear but lets you know that I’m
somewhat of an expert on the subject of the undead.
When I tell you that "The Night of the Living
Dead" is the grandfather of all zombie movies,
there’s a real good chance you’ll
lend some credence to my opinion.
I’ve long been a fan of the work of George
Romero. His ‘Dead” films still stand
as the best series of its kind, and make Romero
the undisputed king of horror film fans everywhere.
The original 1968 release of “The Night
of the Living Dead” was a groundbreaking
film for the horror genre in that it not only
pushed the envelope of what could be shown on
camera, but also refrained from having the typical
Hollywood ending where the ‘good guys’
win. For the time it was made, it was considered
shocking and horrific, and in spite of its age
and low budget status still gives some people
the willies even to this day. Even more shocking
to audiences at the time was it had an African
American as the main lead. Long thought to be
a bit of a social commentary on Romero’s
part, he still claims that he chose Duane Jones
for no other reason than he was the best actor
he had at the time.
Romero didn’t really set out to be a horror
film director, but with the release eleven years
later of “Dawn of the Dead”, that
pretty much did it. Again Romero went against
the Hollywood grain by refusing to make cuts to
the film so that it would get an ‘R’
rating. He instead chose to release the film Unrated,
which was often a death knell for most movies
back in the 1970s as most theatres wouldn’t
even play them. As a matter of fact, when I saw
the premiere in El Paso (Texas), the theatre would
only show it as a midnight movie.
If I can share another little personal side note,
I was into the haunted house thing even back then
while in high school. I went to the premiere with
a friend, both of us dressed up as zombies. We
sat outside the theatre box office and fought
over and chewed on a couple of fake arms that
had been filled with chopped up hot dogs and ketchup.
The theatre manager loved it, some of the patrons…
didn’t. We of course went into the theatre
a little later and watched the movie, much to
the discomfort of the couple we sat next to. (Hee
Hee).
So, all of that said… when my friend and
co-writer Gary told me there was a 'live' stage
production of "The Night of the Living Dead"
opening up in Dallas I HAD to check it out. Knowing
nothing about the production, I 'dug up the dirt'
on it and found that it was being produced as
part of the Young Adult Series of the Dallas Children's
Theater. (The Dallas Children's Theatre????) I
had images of little kids dressed up as Living
Dead dolls running around in a highly watered
down version of the classic film. However, upon
further checking I learned that the cast was actually
made up of several adults and that the zombies
were made up primarily of teenage actors. It was
also being advertised as NOT being for kids and
recommended an audience of 13 years old and up.
This to me was a good sign, though admittedly
my expectations were still not very high.
Gary and I met up and went to the Rosewood Center
for Family Arts, where the show was being performed,
and walked into the lobby. What we saw made our
blood run cold. And no… it wasn't zombies
(yet). It was a huge line of children, whose ages
had to have ranged from 3 to 8, waiting to get
into the theatre. We thought there was no way
that parents would be that ignorant and were relieved
to learn there was actually more than one auditorium
and that group was going in to see a kid's show.
We found our way to the right auditorium, grabbed
our seats and hoped for the best. The lights went
down and the show began.
To say that the DCT's production of "The
Night of the Living Dead" surpassed any and
all expectations I had would be an understatement.
Taking any film and translating it to the stage
can be a formidable task, but the adaptation by
Lori Allen Ohm was as impressive as they come.
She was able to take the dialogue straight from
the screenplay and make it work within the confines
of the living room and cellar of the house our
main characters take refuge in. The film's news
reports are recreated by way of newly shot video,
which was shown to audiences on two TVs suspended
on either side of the stage (which were also used
to give the production movie style opening credits).
We were also incredibly impressed by the set,
which had the living room taking up about three
quarters of the stage and the cellar filling in
the rest. A partial wall split the two rooms,
which was broken to allow a view of both from
the audience. The detail work was amazing in that
the cross section of the wall even had ribbing
set up in it to complete the effect. I learned
after the show that high school student Taylor
Dunn designed the set. I have no idea how many
sets Dunn has had the opportunity to design, but
the work had all the marks of a professional set
designer.
And speaking of the details, I was even further
blown away by all of the little things that were
done to fully create the atmosphere and 'realism'
to the production. Everyone in the audience might
not notice most of these things, but if they weren't
there would have been missed. During a sequence
where the main cast is watching the news reports,
their TV is pointed away from the audience (we
see the reports on the suspended TVs), the lights
dim on the stage but the characters can still
be seen by the light 'flickering' from their prop
TV. Again, it’s a tiny detail but extremely
effective.
There is also a point in the production where
one of the characters is supposed to throw Molotov
cocktails from an upstairs window while two others
run out the door to get to a gas pump. The front
door and two windows are at the back of the stage
so we see the glow of the explosions in the form
of expertly set lights. This is followed by another
sequence that I wasn't sure they could pull off.
In the film it is the first time we see a feeding
frenzy, and here the 'action' is moved to the
front of the stage where several of our zombies
are seen having a very, very bloody buffet. (Remember…
this show is NOT for kids…)
I could go on an on (like I haven't already) about
the production side, but I think I really need
to get to the 'meat' of the show… the actors.
Stepping into the role of Ben, the hero of the
film, is longtime DCT performer Darrius Warren.
His character is a thankless one, as he knows
that he has to take charge in order for any of
the refugees to survive even if some of them don’t
like it. Warren commands the stage with his fierce
intensity and focus. And watching his performance
I felt as though he was channeling the spirit
of Duane Jones. I imagine he must have watched
the film dozens of times as his characterization,
while not a direct impression, almost mirrored
that of Jones down to the cadence of his line
delivery.
Meridith Morton stars as Barbara (as in "They’re
coming to get you, Barbara) and she also delivered
a terrific performance. I have to say that in
a way I kind of felt sorry for her though. The
character of Barbara in the original film goes
into a deep shock and her actions and demeanor
sometimes seemed to go way overboard, almost to
the point of overacting. As this is a recreation
of the film, Morton needed to mold her performance
to closely match that and those who never seen
the film might think SHE overacted. I worry that
only those of us who have seen the film way too
many times to admit will be able to appreciate
what a note-perfect performance it was.
Another tough role to fill is that of Harry Cooper,
the family man adamant to save his wife and injured
child even if it means sacrificing everyone else.
He has to come across as an A-1 jerk, while at
the same time convincing the audience that his
actions are born out of a mixture of over protectiveness
and outright terror of the situation. Joseph Nobles
takes the role and plays it with a self-assured
hand, delivering exactly what fans would hope
to see in the character. As his wife, Helen, Trisha
Miller Smith gives us a woman trying to keep her
composure as she teeters on the edge of insanity.
She obviously loves her husband, but we can see
her fear over the possibility of her daughter
dying and her husband's blustery attitude is slowly
eating away at her. Katy Tye plays their daughter
Karen. Admittedly, she probably as the most comfortable
job as she gets to lie down very still on the
stage for all but the last few minutes of the
show. But when she finally gets up, she becomes
one of its most frightening characters.
Johnny Sequenza and Tori Stephenson play Tom and
Judy, a young couple also trapped in the house.
Both portray their roles as though they are lost
puppies caught up in a situation they cannot control.
Like the rest of main actors, their performances
were great, strongly mirroring those of the characters
as they were played in the movie. Sequenza also
stepped in as the fight choreographer, a role
he fulfilled admirably. Its difficult staging
fights in live theatre and even more difficult
when it's done in such close quarters.
Then, of course, we come to the zombies. Adam
Whittington has the distinction of being the Lead
Zombie (the one who attacks Barbara and Johnny
at the beginning of the show) and he comes across
quite frighteningly. To be honest, and here is
where I thought the show might fall apart, I was
worried that the 'zombies' would just not work.
I imagined a bunch of teenagers trying to shamble
around badly much like the heroes in "Shaun
of the Dead." Because, believe it or not,
it is possible to shamble BADLY and just look
silly. But the zombie cast in DCT's "The
Night of the Living Dead" trained well. Every
time they showed up it created an atmosphere of
creepiness that lent itself very well to the production.
There were ten 'ensemble' zombies and all of their
movements and demeanor were deliberate and well
practiced. Each had their own distinct style of
movement (which kept them from just looking like
copies of each other) and not a one came off bad.
I have to hand it to director Artie Olaisen for
tackling such tough show. He pulled together an
extremely talented cast who were able to deliver
the sometimes overreaching style of acting that
could only come from a B-movie from the 1960's,
and a crew that could successfully recreate the
look and feel of one of the most classic zombie
movies of all time.
Written by: George Romero and John Russo
Adapted for the stage by: Lori Allen Ohm
Directed by: Artie Olaisen
Starring: Meridith Morton, Matt Savins, Adam
Whittington, Joseph Nobles, Trisha Miller Smith,
Katy Tye, Johnny Sequenza, Tori Stephenson, Darius
Warren, Steve Jones, Victor Wainstein, Shayne
Brawner, Ken Teutsch, John Henson,
Zombie Ensemble: Jennifer Boone, Matthew Brown,
Karson Elmgren, Elaina Gavounas, Audrey Gieseman,
Sarah Hoffman, Henry Monfries, Meg Showalter,
Victoria Time, Trey Trevino
Venue:
Dallas Children's Theatre
Rosewood Center for Family Arts
5938 Skillman St.
214-740-0051
Website
Playing through November 4th, 2006
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