We are very pleased to announce that our next production is the Irish stage premiere of Night Of The Living Dead.
We will perform a brand new stage version of George A. Romero’s classic horror from 24th – 28th July at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. It will be the first time any version of the work has been performed in Ireland.
The original 1968 movie is regarded as one of the most seminal horror movies of all time and regarded as the template for political commentary in horror cinema. It also gave birth to what has become known as the ‘zombie’ genre of movies.
Our production is written by Connie Walsh and John Morton and uses the original script by George A. Romero and John A. Russo as a jumping off point. It has been transposed from a farmhouse in rural Philadelphia in 1968 to a ghost estate in the south east of Ireland in 2012. It tells the story of a group of disparate strangers, trapped in an abandoned house after an unknown incident causes the dead to come back and attack the living. This new theatrical version uses the story to examine present day issues in a fear-gripped modern day Ireland. Like the original movie, it is a darkly comic satire that depicts the capacity for horrific acts in normal people during times of crisis.
The cast for our production of Night Of The Living Dead are Darragh Byrne, Alex Christle, Anne Cody, Alan Doyle, Hazel Doyle, Abbey Harris, Michael Hayes, Adrian Kavanagh, John Kennedy, Kevin Mooney, Niamh Moroney, Aoibhín Murphy, Ed Murphy, Maria Murray, Colin O’Brien, Nuala Roche, David Thompson, Connie Walsh and Paul Young.
We first started actively developing this play during our In The Future When All’s Well residency in 2011. It continues our vein of work that explores the modern Irish experience for a younger, angrier, hungrier generation. Like the Dario Fo Season and Scratcher, it’s angry and political. Like Shifting and Smitten it’s about young disillusioned Irish people looking for a way out. And like bash: latterday plays, it examines what horrors can be inflicted by seemingly civilised people in a messed up society. Night Of The Living Dead encapsulates a lot of the themes and ideas that interest us in theatre and that have informed our work for the past five years. But with more zombies.
Like bash: latterday plays and our participation in TEXT|Messages at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, late last year, Night Of The Living Dead has also been developed during our participation in the Not An Empty Space initiative run by Kilkenny County Council Arts Office. As nice and roomy as our new premises are, it’s going to be fun to see us cram a cast that size in there during hot summer days!
Night Of The Living Dead will open in a limited run at The Watergate Theatre from July 24th – 28th. Tickets are already available for booking at the Watergate Box Office on 056 – 7761674 or online via WatergateTheatre.com.
We’ve also just launched a website for the show which you can visit at nightofthelivingdead.ie. For all other information and updates, keep an eye out here!
[…] keep track of what The Devious Theatre Company is up to then you would have learned last night that we’ve launched Night Of The Living Dead, our flagship production for […]
[…] A lovely crowd of company, friends, members, associates, sponsors and family gathered in The Watergate Theatre on Saturday night for the launch of our first big production of 2012, our new version of Night Of The Living Dead. To help set the scene, we had the original movie screening in the background for any curious heads who weren’t already familiar with the Romero classic. You can read all about the show right here. […]