night of the living dead Tag Archive

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March 22, 2013 • devious theatre

Living Dead Revisited

I spent the bulk of my time last year working on the Irish stage premiere of Night Of The Living Dead for Devious Theatre. It had been a few years since we had done a ‘marquee’ play and our own take on Romero’s zombie horror fest was something that we had put into the works back in 2009. Sometimes you just need to do a big crowd pleasing comic horror, y’know? (See also, Cannibal! The Musical in 2007).

During In The Future When All’s Well in 2011, myself and Connie Walsh started writing it and then last year it all came together. Getting to co-write and direct the show was too much fun and the team we put together were fantastic. All in all, it was exactly the big zombie play set I always wanted to fool around with. I would have loved more performance time for the show as I think it could have really clicked but with only 5 nights to play with, we made a bloody glorious mess with what we had. In the end, it is by far the biggest hit show Devious Theatre have ever done and more people came to see it than anything we’ve done before… which was nice.

In the past few weeks, we’ve managed to release some new material from the show. Ken McGuire cut together a really nice look at some of the show highlights which you can see above. Ross Costigan has also released some new photos from the show, including the above photo of myself in cameo zombie mode, and you can check them out here.

For more on the production itself, check out nightofthelivingdead.ie

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July 31, 2012 • devious theatre

The Dead Walked

Yup, the clean up was a bitch in the end.

The amount of fake blood we left in the Watergate Theatre was fairly disgusting. Then again, when you’re performing the Irish stage debut of Night Of The Living Dead you’re going to have to expect a little bit of a mess. And what a glorious mess it was. 5 nights of zombie slaying and apocalyptic destruction as our 20 strong cast hit the stage with serious force every night.

All in all, it was a blast. We got the best audiences that we’ve ever had for any of our shows to date which was a great feeling. The place was really buzzing and it was so good to see so many people enjoy a piece of theatre like that. It wasn’t to everyone’s taste but that’s par for the course with anything that mixes horror, comedy and any amount of social commentary. It was great to see that the huge promo campaign we undertook for the show paid off. After all that new content we generated, it would have been a shame if it didn’t. Actually no, it would just have sucked. But hey, someone is paying attention anyway so that’s good!

The year I spent working on this went so damn quick… it’s insane really. The post show blues on a show of this scale are going to be a right bastard. I only wish we were in a position to tour Night Of The Living Dead. I’m confident that we have a fantastic show and with the right opportunities and support we could really have an amazing piece of Irish theatre that a wide audience can see. Unfortunately, the opportunities and support aren’t in place right now and so it’s back to the drawing board with the show.If you know of any wealthy patrons who love horror plays, send ’em our way.

I’m absolutely honoured and privilged to work with such an amazing team over the past couple of months. Between the cast and crew, I really couldn’t have had a better, more dedicated hard working bunch of people to work with. Particular props must go to my co-writer Connie Walsh who busted her ass on this show for over a year and did a sterling amount of work on making this play. The girl’s got talent and I can’t wait to see what she cooks up next.

So that’s Night Of The Living Dead put to bed for the moment at least. Thanks to everyone who came, funded and supported this show. It means the world to me and to everyone in the comedy. Most of all, it lets us keep on doing what we do. Phantasm is opening up at Abhainn Rí this week so there’s definitely no rest for my wickedness.

These shows, they won’t stay dead…

Photos by Ross Costigan (I stole his zombie cameo shtick)

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July 24, 2012 • devious theatre

The Night Of The Living Dead Rises…

Devious Theatre’s production of Night Of The Living Dead opens tonight in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny.

It’s the culmination of a massive year’s work and I can’t get my head around how quickly it’s arrived. You always think it seems so far away but no, it always creeps up on you. Like a zombie, aptly enough. But after a long, bloody birth, our biggest, nastiest baby to date is about to hit Kilkenny’s biggest stage for the first time.

Myself and Connie Walsh spent a long time working on the script for this one. It’s been a blast getting to play with the entire history of zombie fiction and I hope we’ve written something that pays respectful homage to it. We’ve tried to write a version of the story that’s new, fresh, funny and uniquely Irish whilst also staying close to Romero’s vision of the origins of an undead apocalypse. If you’re a fan of zombie fiction I’m confident there’s a lot you’ll like about this.

The cast and crew have been powerhouses all round as we bring our vision of the end of the world to an Irish stage for the first time. A director just couldn’t ask for a better team. Most of them are majorly tired and can’t get fake blood off their clothes so it helps to keep them sweet as much as possible.

Word from the box office is that we’re nearly sold out tonight which is a massive achievement and it will be amazing to play to a near full house for our debut performance of the show. It’s been a long haul to get here but finally, the first ever Irish zombie stage play and the Irish premiere of Night Of The Living Dead is ready to rise…. we hope to see you invade.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from tonight July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Bookings can be made on 056 – 7761674 or online here. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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July 21, 2012 • devious theatre

Night Of The Living Dead – The Prologue

Philip Brennan and Connie Walsh as Babs and Johnny.

In preparation for this coming weeks stage debut of Night Of The Living Dead we’ve just released a prologue for the play based on the opening scene of the movie.

The famous kick off to George A. Romero’s 1968 original, is the big omission for the stage adaptation by Connie Walsh and myself. The scene involves protagonist Barbara and her brother Johnny visiting their father’s grave on the day when the dead begin to walk. And it’s got the famous ‘They’re coming to get you, Barbara!’ line. When we decided we weren’t going to represent it on stage, we figured the best way to do it would be to make a shot for shot short movie based on it and release it as a prologue that would lead into the events of the play. So, here it is!

Myself and Connie wrote it and Devious Theatre produced it in conjunction with Mycrofilms. I did the directing (pretty much stole Romero’s shot list) with Richie Cody lining up all the shots. Connie played her role as Babs in the play with Philip Brennan playing the role of Johnny.

Bulls aren’t the only things they need to watch out for.

The idea is that if you’re going to see the play, this will give you a nice intro into the world of it. If you’re not going to see the play, maybe this can persuade you to go!

Photos by Ross Costigan.

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July 12, 2012 • devious theatre

They Won’t Stay Dead

The final character poster for Devious Theatre’s upcoming zombie smackdown Night Of The Living Dead went online last week. Now the collection is complete! I would hope the cool, youngsters of today will flock around town trying to collect the entire set, Panini sticker collection style. But then I realise that we’ll have wasted a lot of money and advertising. 🙁

This poster introduces Ben, the main character of both the play and original film, played by Eddie Murphy. You may notice that he’s not black but Romero said that wasn’t an issue in the original and we believe him so we’re going to stick to our guns here by casting white boy Eddie. Our version of the character originally played by Duane Jones is ironically a racist, sexist, foul mouthed, pissed off unemployed construction worker. Which in itself was a really good excuse to give him some handy implements to kill people with.

The show is now 2 weeks off opening and the pressure (and hype and expectancy) is really starting to amp up. Last night we went from one physically intense sequence to another so I guess my main concern at this stage is keeping the actors alive for long enough to do the play. Fingers crossed.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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July 3, 2012 • devious theatre

Are Ya Man Or Are Ya Beast?

Another week, another character poster for Night Of The Living Dead. Will it ever end? Answer: yup, there’s one more left. So, tonight, then. Which is why I need to catch up and post the last one.

This poster introduces The McClellan Brothers, Hughie, Big Jimmy and Paddy, played by Michael Hayes, Adrian Kavanagh and David Thompson. They’re our version of Sheriff McClellan and his gang of marauding living dead killers in the original movie. And just like them, our McClellan’s are making their way around the countryside cleaning up the scourge of the undead.We had to work hard to make them look more psychotic than comical. It’s so hard to do when you decide one character has a mullet.

We have three weeks left until the show opens and I’m really looking forward to starting work with a lot more effects this week. The novelty of doing this play still hasn’t worn off yet and with Phantasm just finished it’s Cork run (it went great!) I’m diving right into a pile of corpses until we can drag ’em up onto the stage.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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June 20, 2012 • devious theatre

It’s Important That Families Stick Together

The newest character poster for Devious Theatre’s upcoming production of Night Of The Living Dead introduces the Cooper Family.

Played by Paul Young, Nuala Roche and Abbey Harris, they are our version of Harry, Helen and Karen Cooper, the family holed up in the basement of George A. Romero’s 1968 original. One area where we haven’t deviated in this regard, is how poorly Karen is feeling. And as you can see from this family portrait, she’s looking a little bit off. Must be the flu.

We’re a week into rehearsals at this point and it’s going really well so far. I keep having to remind myself that I’m directing an epic zombie story. It’s an absolute treat. We’re juggling it with our other new play Phantasm (more on that later) which offers a nice small appetiser to the bloody main course that is Night Of The Living Dead. Dessert will be sleep.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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June 11, 2012 • devious theatre

It’s Funny How We All Ended Up Here

Here’s our newest character poster for Night Of The Living Dead.

Frankie is a completely new character that doesn’t exist in the original film. Myself and Connie Walsh created him for the play because we needed an extra male character for certain plot points and to convey some of the Irish centric themes of the play. He’s played by John Kennedy and as you can see, he’s under a lot of pressure in this poster. For the concept of the poster, we went with the idea of Frankie trying to escape into an attic. We don’t really have basements in Irish stories so we changed it to a Stira for the purposes of the play. Also, the sticks for Stira’s are lethal if you flake someone with them. Especially in the head.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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May 26, 2012 • devious theatre

Sever The Head Or Destroy The Brain

It’s all kicking off for Devious Theatre’s production of Night Of The Living Dead.

After launching the production with a character poster for Babs back in February, we’ve just released the second poster. This time it’s Tom and Judy, the teenage lovebirds of the original movie. Played by Kevin Mooney and Aoibhín Murphy, our version of the characters have a lot more attitude. They’re also very Irish. Which explains the hurl. It was very hard to write an Irish zombie movie and not use a hurl as a weapon. It’s also a pretty handy way to sever a head or destroy a brain, which as the movie tells us, is the only way to kill one of the living dead. So yeah, there’s going to be a lot of that going on.

There’s also going to be a lot more character posters. Four more to be exact. Yup, we always do overkill on the posters but if there’s anything this play requires, it’s overkill. The concept for this poster was based on imagery from Badlands, Heathers and Natural Born Killers. Essentially, iconic movies about young attractive killer couples. It definitely makes an eye grabbing poster. I just hope we’ll be allowed put it up in public!

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny.

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April 10, 2012 • devious theatre

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara!

We’ve just launched the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Devious Theatre production of Night Of The Living Dead.

It sets out the stall for our version of the story which is coming from an Irish perspective in 2012. A really bad crisis happens and it gets worse and worse and people have to flee the country and it doesn’t look too rosy for the ones who are left behind. Sound familiar, right? We’re doing dear ol’ Uncle George proud and going straight for the socio political themes that made his original movie so vital. It’s probably safe to say that the characters will swear loads and drink tea too.

The trailer also provides a look at Connie Walsh playing the part of beleaguered teen heroine Barbara. The most iconic line from the original movie gets an airing here with Stephen Colfer uttering ‘They’re coming to get you Barbara!’ He’ll be playing the part of Barbara’s brother Johnny in this production.

We’ve also launched Night Of The Living Dead.ie just for the show and all its general production chronicing so check that one out if you’re inclined to keep up with our zombie struggles.

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