Night Of The Living Dead Live Review
Where: Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF (nearest tube Caledonian Road)
When: 9th Apr 2019 – 8th June 2019, 7:30pm, 2:30pm, 5pm (times vary by day). Run time 2 hours with interval
How much:
Premium – Splatter Zone 1 (Onstage) £40
Band A – Splatter Zone 2 (Front Stalls) £35
Band B – Supposedly Safe (Back Stalls) £27
Band C – Probably Safe (Balcony Stool) £20
Band D – Probably Safe (Restricted Balcony Stool) £15
Review by: Roman Ackley
That ‘splatter zone’ based ticket pricing raises a few questions so let me be up front: there is fake gore in this show. For a premium ticket you can sit on the stage in the middle of the action- but don’t worry, you can have an overall to protect your clothes. I sat at the back- these tweeds are dry clean only.
Night of the Living Dead established what came to be know as the zombie movie back in 1968- though, fun fact: they never actually use the word zombie in the film. It established a lot of what works in modern horror, and being heavily copied it produced a lot of cliches as well- including fear-paralysed blonde nymphets, rag-tag bunches of survivors, and inescapable undead hoards.
There aren’t that many frightening moments in Night of the Living Dead Live but that’s not the angle it is going for. It’s very much a joke-per-second full tilt comic parody with a few jump-scares.
I like a joke-heavy show and want there to be more of them, but that does mean that sometimes outright silliness takes over from the plot quite often. I am utterly at home with that but its’ not for everyone, especially if you are a die-hard fan looking to be spooked– and it can make pacing a bit awkward. This is comedy parody in the style of Little Shop of Horrors- with big gestures and huge personalities bordering on Three Stooges territory at times. Having audience members on stage likewise diffuses the tension but dials up the comedy as they dodge flying limbs and splashes of zombie juice.
One of the most visually striking things is the complete commitment to a monochromatic colour scheme in both set and in costume and stage makeup. This allows for a more complete immersion into a classic movie look, but with sympathetic lighting also allows for some extreme physical expressions on the part fo the cast. This reminded me of The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Kill the Beast which came to London a few years back- and fans of that quirky, grotesque, expressionist production will find a lot of fun with this one.
Overall my date and I had a lot of fun and laughed like a pair of backed up drains for the duration, but this show is not for the serious or the squeamish.
