Theater Review: Brian MacInnis Smallwood's 12th Night of the Living Dead, New York

The Impetuous Theater Group, an always dependable, independent theatre company in New York, is serving up some gore and laughs with Brian MacInnis Smallwood's merging of the worlds of William Shakespeare and that of George A. Romero with 12th Night of the Living Dead. It is a wickedly funny homage to the films of Romero, Shaun of the Dead, and countless other zombie films.

The show opened with a flourish last evening at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (in the La Tea Theater) down on Suffolk Street. Smallwood, director John Hurley, and an impressive cast serve up a bare bones adaptation of the play (coming in at one hour) with something for everyone. It's fast, funny and very, very bloody.

The insanity begins with a shipwreck, not caused by a storm as in the original play, but from a meteorite crashing into the ship (presented here as a rib tickling puppet show), killing many on board. Well, not quite. The action then moves to the kingdom of Illyria, with the Duke Orsino (Aaron Michael Zook) lying around listening to music (Alex Pappas on ukulele), pining away for the love of Lady Olivia (Shashannah Newman).

Viola (Lindsay Wolf), now a zombie, is swept onto the Illyrian shore after the shipwreck. Alone in a strange land and very, very hungry for human flesh, she immediately and easily dispatches her first victim. She assumes that her twin brother, Sebastian (Jason Paradine), has been drowned - but yes, he has also been transformed into a zombie.

While looking for food, Viola goes to work in the kingdom of Duke Orsino, where she quickly becomes his favorite. He makes her (now named Cesario) his page. When Orsino sends Cesario to deliver a love message to Lady Olivia, Olivia herself falls for the beautiful young zombie, believing her (or it) to be a man. Orsino and Olivia are both just a wee bit clueless to the fact that Viola is a zombie.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s drunken uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Timothy J. Cox), his silly friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Benjamin Ellis Fine), who is trying in his own fruitless attempt to court Olivia, Olivia’s sharp waiting-gentlewoman, Maria (Erin Jerozal), and Feste (Larry Giantonio), the witty clown of the house, hatch a plan to play a practical joke on the pedantic Malvolio (Tom Knutson), the hard-faced steward of Olivia’s household. Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think Olivia is in love with him. (The famous letter scene, which includes Malvolio’s “change”, is priceless).

Article Author: Hannah Marie Ellison

Hannah Marie Ellison is a freelance writer on the subject of jazz, wine and theatre. Her articles and reviews have been published in theatrical publications all over the United States and in Prague.

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