​GEORGE A ROMERO’S NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD LIVE!

Romero’s Night of the Living Dead…. LIVE!
played for laughs, jump-scares and even a song

There may well be more than one stage version of George A Romero’s (1968) cult-classic zombie flick doing the rounds and this review is of the production showing in London from April-June 2019 at the Pleasance Theatre which was written by Christopher Bond, Dale Boyer and Trevor Martin and created by Christopher Harrison and Phil Pattinson. If you’re reading this I’ll presume you’re familiar with the Romero film on which this inventive comedy is based upon. I am not going to make many references to the film or fill you in on what should be very familiar territory, except for way of comparison with this play.
 
It really was a production of two halves; the first of which stays relatively close to the film, the black main character Ben (Ashley Samuels) in particular plays it with a straight bat which much of the other cast hamming it up around him. This version of Ben is the closest thing you get to Romero’s film in this production.
 
The second part was a major departure from the film and came dangerously close to overstaying its welcome with six (or was it seven?) ‘what if?’ sliding door scenarios which had me looking at my watch. Thankfully they got shorter (and more farcical) as they went along and effectively these alternatives tried to play out scenarios where things might have ended differently for Ben and the others trapped in the farmhouse. A couple of the funniest included; ‘what if’ an all-American (white) boy was in charge? A second; ‘what if’ the women were in change? A third; ‘what if’ everyone hid in the cellar as the obnoxious character Harry (Marc Pickering) always wanted to do in the film causing much friction with Ben? In between each scenario the stage revolved and off we went again, one time too many perhaps? Probably. Even if most featured sly digs on stereotypes we often see in modern cinema, it went on a bit. With the farce any tension which existed at the interval disappeared.

Right from the start we know we are going to be viewing ‘what if’ episodes as the play opens with Ben being shockingly shot before flashing back to when he earlier arrived in the house and is quickly joined by Barbra (Mari McGinlay) who is in shock after being chased by one of the ghouls (the zombie word is never used) and is then joined by Jennifer Harding who plays both Helen and Judy. After a while Barbra grated with a high-pitched whine of a voice which mimicked comedy stars of the period. The ‘what if’ scenario way well have been used purely because it is very difficult to turn a trashy ninety-minute film into a two-hour play; especially when a significant number of the scene from the film are played off stage, such as the attempted escape to the car. However, the set cleverly plays some of these scenes behind a set screen which worked very well. The murders committed by the infected little girl are handled the same way.
 
Bizarrely, there were twenty (top priced tickets!) audience seats slap bang in the middle of the stage in four groups of five. These audience members were wearing grey boiler suits to fit into the monochrome style of the set, but also because of the splatter effect. From what we saw few of the audience on stage were covered with anything in the way of gunk and we were sitting in the front row “splatter” seats, just a few feet from the action, and never got a sniff of a drop, so this was a bit off a mis-sell. Near the end of the production a couple of corpses were ripped apart over those on stage, but that was it. Also, having these people sniggering away on stage also reduced any serious atmosphere the play might have.  Also, depending on how the stage had revolved they blocked certain views of the main audience which was a bit dumb. The actors were all in monochrome makeup and these audience members really stood out because they were so human pink! It’s not even as if any zombies (sorry ghouls) wandered on stage to give them a fright!
 
Onto the ghouls…. Or lack of them. They shuffled around behind the stage, the odd hand came through a fake door, or the occasional well-choreographed fight scene, otherwise they were entirely absent, which was a shame considering this was a play about zombies. I appreciate this was mainly played for slapstick laughs, but it lacked any scares apart from the odd jump with the lights going off and on, or the excellent use of sound. There was potential for decent scares as the eerie monochrome setting of the farmhouse was great.   
 
Unless they know exactly what they are letting themselves in for, diehard fans way well be disappointed in a production which puts comedy above horror and there were several occasions when I was not sure whether this was intentional. It certainly hand some very funny moments, such as the recreation of the scene from the film where they watch television and get an update on what’s going on. This is played completely for laughs and a giant TV is wheeled on and a couple of the actors become the ‘live’ newsreaders. It ended with a song, the sort of the thing you might expect to hear in The Little Shop of Horrors or The Toxic Avenger musical, this was good fun and finished the whole thing on a light high. We could almost forget we had seen the entire cast killed eight times in total (or was it nine?) Who is counting?
 
The London run has now finished but keep an eye out for the show should it go on tour around the UK or elsewhere. I gave it three stars, my thirteen-year-old daughter gave it four stars, so we’ll settle for 3.5 gingernuts.
 
Tony Jones