We Talk with ‘Night of the Living Dead Live’ Co-Creator, Phil Pattison
Have you heard? Zombies have invaded Toronto! That’s right, Night of the Living Dead Live, the stage adaptation of the 1968 zombie film that defined the modern zombie genre, has arrived for a month long run at Theatre Passe Muraille.
We had a chance to chat with Phil Pattison, co-creator of the production, before the big opening night this past Friday about the process of making this happen and though we was reluctant to divulge too many details, a little bit about what to expect from the live show.
A week before opening night Phil was, “excited, stressed, nervous, then excited again”. Big man on campus, George Romero had yet to see a run-through of the production, but Russel Streiner and John Russo had been to rehearsal and the show had “knocked their socks off”.
What was it like getting Romero on board and asking his approval?
“Absolutely amazing, George Romero being our hero, a dream come true for one”. Phil explained that they were originally going to do it in Hamilton but the pieces just weren’t coming together and they couldn’t get the original filmmakers on board. That all changed when Phil and Christopher Harrison (co-creator of Night of the Living Dead: Live) were promoting their film “Devil’s Night” at Fan Expo where John Russo and Russel Streiner were guests. One thing led to another and the four connected and got to talking about the project. After a spending a few months of back and forth, on April 26th 2012 (exactly one year before opening night), Phil and Christopher sat down with George Romero and Russel Streiner to hash out the details. That day “was like being a kid at Christmas morning sitting down and meeting those guys”.
Can you tell us a little bit about the decision to make the play interactive, in black and white(!) and the level of involvement the audience might have?
“Everything is in black and white grey scale. That process has been kind of science if you will. Our lighting designer and costume designer having to come together to come up with the right way to do it.”
As for the audience interaction Phil wouldn’t give too much away, he said, “the hook is you never know who you’re going to be sitting beside”. They want audience to be surprised as to what’s going on. When you go to the show, the audience is ushered in by zombies, and there will be a moan zone, a while section of zombies in black and white.
Having seen Evil Dead the Musical find a lot of success as a stage adaptation drawing a lot on the comedic and parody side of the films – do you see there being a similar kind of expectation for the adaptation of Night of the Living Dead? Particularly with the connection of director Chris Bond to the production?
With that — When adapting Night of the Living Dead , do you find that you’re thinking a lot about audience expectations of what a zombie film on stage looks like? And does this conflict with the more serious political and racial themes of Night of the Living Dead?
The goal for Chris and Phil was to “make sure to keep the integrity of the film – the racism and the period – everything is of the time period all in tact. One of the challenges of hiring Chris Bond as the first choice. There is an expectation of being silly and campy of Evil Dead.”
One of the biggest challenges is, ‘how do we keep it scary yet funny?’. Evil Dead the Musical is its own entity, separate with Chris Bond and Trevor Martin on the team – our own little flavour.” But audiences will see a little bit of Evil Dead.
“Romero has never done comedy – very serious and political. We’ve kept the original content – kept the original characters, Johnny, Karen are in it- very tight to the original material. Christopher Bond adhered to the original requests. Audiences will walk away wanting to come back.”
Phil also pointed out that as a medium stage is very different from film, “With theatre has to have a little bit of comedy in it”.
With the Toronto Zombie Walk as a sponsor of the production – do you think we can expect some black and white zombies at the 2013 walk in October?
“Yes, probably going to see it. As far as the Toronto Zombie Walk has been very helpful in coordinating our ushers. Responsible for wrangling our ushers and moan zone. Thea Munster has been very involved in the production.”
Phil tells us that we can expect to see Living Dead Live promoting this October at the Zombie Walk.
Night of the Living Dead: Live runs from April 26th – May 19th at Theatre Passe Muraille. Get your tickets here and read Laura’s review of the play here.
