Originally published Friday, October 10, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print view
SCT pulls off a lively version of a zombie classic
Theater review by Misha Berson: "Night of the Living Dead," on stage at Seattle Children's Theatre, delivers with deadpan acting and surprising sets, costumes and special effects that will scare and thrill you.
Seattle Times theater critic
"Night of the Living Dead"
Plays Fridays-Sundays through Nov. 1 at Seattle Children's Theatre, Seattle Center; $20 ($24 for Halloween weekend; 206-441-3322 or www.sct.org). Recommended for ages 13 and older.Set aside, for a moment, the fact that Seattle Children Theatre's "Night of the Living Dead" is enacted with deadpan panache. And that it's an obvious attempt to attract more adolescents to the theater.
Let's get down to what really counts here: the Yuck Factor.
Is this live version of the cult-classic George Romero horror flick gory, grisly and ghoulish enough? Does it match the 1968 movie it's based on as an "unrelieved orgy of sadism" (as one aghast critic put it)?
Perhaps not, but as tongue-in-cheek romps about flesh-gobbling monsters go, "Night of the Living Dead" is plenty yucky. It's also pure escapist fun — for any teen (or adult) who can enjoy creature-feature camp without getting freaked by suspenseful but blatantly hokey stage savagery.
Closely following the "Night of the Living Dead" screenplay by Romero and John Russo, Lori Allen Ohm's play resurrects a B-plot that starts with two adult siblings, Johnny (Troy Fischnaller) and Barb (Sarah Harlett), having their first brush with those gosh-darn zombies in a dark cemetery.
Barb eludes her attackers, part of a mob of ghouls who've returned from the dead with rabid cannibal cravings.
She then stumbles across a remote country house and holes up there with a take-charge stranger, Ben (Reginald André Jackson), who goes all Rambo to fend off the rampaging zombie hordes.
Hiding out, too, are a squabbling married couple, Harry (Peter Jacobs) and Helen (Marianne Owen), and their suspiciously comatose young daughter.
Interspersed with frantic TV news reports (with projected montages of 1960s black-and-white news footage, cleverly compiled by Lara Kaminsky), the dire zombie vs. human battle escalates over a zippy 75 minutes of scariness and hilarity.
The actors mainly play their stock characters straight, ensuring maximum absurdity. Especially funny are Harlett, as a woman gone gaga with terror, and Owen, as a ticked-off matron who isn't about to let her idiot husband or any lurching corpses ruin her day.
The suspense is fueled by sudden zombie eruptions and the earnestly ineffectual blather of rattled TV new anchors (Galen Joseph Osier and MJ Sieber). And there are a few eerie surprises in store. (Our lips are sealed.)
When Romero's low-budget thriller first came out, it was often interpreted as a social critique of a paranoid, embattled, late-1960s America — a nation embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam and rife with mindless conformity and racism. Such analyses are not so far afield. But Romero undoubtedly was, in the time-honored tradition of horror flicks and Grand Guignol theatrics, also just trying to keep moviegoers on the edge of their seats.
Linda Hartzell's sharply timed staging, Carey Wong's claptrap set and Michael Wellborn's wily lighting are in service of the same idea at SCT.
And the acting antics — from Jackson's no-nonsense heroics and Jacobs' smarm, to the herky-jerky marching and bloody munching of the zombie brigade — never let up either. (Kudos to costume designer Rana Webber for the ultra-yucky look of the fiends.)
But the show's Devo-like dance finale (choreographed by Kathryn Van Meter) leaves you with a message the film didn't deliver. That is this: Whatever their faults are, those zombies can really get a groove on.
Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
![]()
Best bets for summer arts events
Obituary: Mary Henry, 96, Northwest painter
Buy one, get one free tickets at Imagine Children's Museum on the Fourth of July
Art and conversation flow from hands and heart of artist Mandy Greer
Rising N.Y. director brings her 'Othello' to Seattle

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
Tax tips for new independent professionals
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new truck? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
nwhomes

Find a new home or condo that fits your lifestyle.
Search New Developments
Builder Directory
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Russell Branyan, Mariners fight off the Red Sox
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Palin takes to Web for hints of political future
- Fourth of July festivals and fireworks in Seattle, the suburbs and beyond
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Tenn. police rule ex-QB McNair's death a homicide
- Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox: 07/05 game thread
247 - Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
172 - Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players
135 - Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
122 - Former NFL MVP McNair killed
112 - Property taxes: Appeals shoot up is King, Snohomish Counties
103 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
100 - Anti-tax rally in Olympia attracts about 1,500
68 - Mariners did their part, now they need help
41 - Megachurch pastor Rick Warren addresses US Muslims
36
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Merchant Marine veterans fight for recognition
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Close-up | Prison guards intercept carrier pigeon with a cellphone
- Amtrak cleared for 2nd daily train to Vancouver, B.C.
- Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
- Pre-grill drill: marinate steaks
- Concert Review | Green Day blasts off 4th weekend with KeyArena show








