SCT brings out some hungry, dancing 'Living Dead'

Forget Anne Frank and "Our Town." Seattle Children's Theatre (SCT) is taking on another classic: "Night of the Living Dead."

Your immediate reaction may be "Huh?" or "Cool!" or perhaps, "Will there be barbecued ribs for the children before the shows?"

"Nobody's said it's a bad idea but everybody's intrigued," says Sarah Harlett, who plays Barbara, the terrified heroine originated by Judith O'Dea in director George A. Romero's 1968 horror landmark.

A refresher: Shot on the cheap in black-and-white, and with unknown Pittsburgh actors — a number of whom were also crew, investors or both — the movie generated four sequels, including last year's "Diary of the Dead," remakes and spawned its own genre with countless imitators. The tense story largely takes place in a farmhouse where a group of strangers makes a stand against a horde of reanimated, shambling, cannibalistic corpses. It's since been added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

The children's stage production, adapted by Lori Allen Ohm, already has had successful runs in Portland and Dallas. (Romero could not be reached for this article.) SCT director Linda Hartzell says her production is intended for kids 13 and older, although (based on a viewing of a pre-opening run-through) the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" vibe she's tapping into should make it a hoot for adult barbecue enthusiasts as well.

The film had its share of unintentional humor with such lines as, "They're dead — they're all messed up." But SCT's broadcasters describing the zombie emergency are now overtly comical, slapstick characters. And hey, four decades later, phrases such as "epidemic of mass murder" and "wholesale murder" are funny enough on their own. While Romero's flick only included a hint of what could have caused the dead to wake up hungry, SCT's "Night" includes a wacky scientist demonstrating the Venus satellite with models reminiscent of Ed Wood Jr. ("Plan 9 from Outer Space"). Also incongruous and un-Romero, but hilarious: a big zombie dance number. (Citing recent precedent: A similar one was a stroke of demented genius in the otherwise serious 2003 blind-samurai film "Zatoichi".)

Not a horror buff herself, Hartzell says she's adding camp that was absent from Romero's bleak original — which she's only seen once. She also drew inspiration from horror spoofs "Young Frankenstein" and "Shaun of the Dead." And this version is set in Seattle, with plenty of local references including some characters planning an escape from the carnage to Issaquah.

But, she also promises, "There will be blood." Not a great deal, but some realistic-looking severed limbs and a bit of intestine-munching, with gummy worms substituting for the real thing.

Reggie Jackson leads the adult cast as Ben, played by the late Duane Jones in Romero's film. It was a historic and fairly radical role in 1968, a tumultuous year for civil rights in which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated: a black hero, not to mention one bossing around the white people, as well as slapping a white woman, Barbara, because she's hysterical. A lot's changed since then that may be lost on kids, not the least of which is a black contender for president.

"I felt pretty much the same way so I was fighting to keep those things in this play," says Jackson, who has also been in local productions of "Pericles" and "Fathers and Sons." "There was some question about the slap, I think, partly just because of where we're at in Children's Theatre, just a man hitting a woman, and people not taking into account, like in the '60s, there was like a thing — one out of every five movies you would see a stereotypical thing where a woman would get hysterical and you would slap her to calm her down."

What specifically about the ravenous undead will stick to kids' ribs?

"When you're a kid, anything that's taboo is kind of hip and cool," Jackson says. "I feel it's kind of gone the crazy end of things now with all these kind of fast zombie movies where they're kind of super-speedy and the gore equation is ramped up. I don't really dig that, but I think they will really love the more suspenseful slow zombie thing. There is something inherently funny about something moving in super-slow motion."

Harlett's Barbara takes a whack at Ben first. Fans of the movie recall Barbara's range as between hysterical and catatonic. But Harlett, whose local acting has included "All's Well that Ends Well" and "The Hundred Dresses," injects some entertaining sarcasm — as well as an earsplitting shriek that could set off car alarms. She did not cultivate that for the role.

"It is a natural talent of mine. I've been blessed or cursed to be in other shows throughout the years where I was cast as the heroine with the bloodcurdling shriek."

Surprisingly, it had not been her life's ambition to be on the receiving end of the immortal taunt, "They're coming to get you, Barbara."

"I had not seen the movie before. I rented it after I was cast, and I was shocked at the end of it," Harlett says.

What's next if "Night" kills for SCT? No one has mentioned plans for a children's production of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "The Hills Have Eyes."

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com

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