LITTLE ROCK — Tempted to visit a haunted house but turned off by all the walking? Instead you could see the Arkansas Arts Center's stage version of Night of the Living Dead. Zombies advance; you sit.
Or, that is, you'll sit if you don't mind missing a few of them. The Arts Center's theater crew is presenting its live-action version of the George Romero cult classic as part of the Studio Theatre Series, which means a more intimate, black-box-style space, but also no pitch to the floor, so only the first two rows of folding chairs can see all the tussling and sight gags as the living fight the dead down on the living-room rug. At Thursday night's premiere (the play runs nightly through Tuesday), some fans stood. Luckily, the adaptation is scarcely more than an hour long.
The production lurches between camp, allegory and self-seriousness. By the time she sheds her ruffled blouse to reveal a tank top and a pair of toned biceps that flex when she fires a Glock, Katherine Campbell would find herself right at home as the put-upon heroine who ultimately discovers her grit around which most modern-day slasher films revolve.
A veteran of several central Arkansas acting troupes, Campbell also has the closest thing to a character arc. Her lament, "It doesn't take long for the world to fall apart, does it?" is one of the few things that didn't make the audience giggle or hoot.
Otherwise there was plenty; how could there not be for a production whose program credits roles including "Mime Zombie," "Drag Queen Zombie" and "Zamboni Zombie"? The set design harks back to a Romero's era with its ashen hue - almost, but not quite, black and white - but the zombie fight scenes pulse with music that seems lifted from the speedboat chase scenes on 1980s-era Miami Vice.
So maybe Night of the Living Dead isn't a Halloween-appropriate, haunted-house experience for the slothful, after all; crowd participation seems as inevitable as another zombie scratching at the fake windowpane. See the current production more than once (tickets are $7), and you'll probably feel like bellowing along, Rocky Horror Picture Show-style, as local improv comedian Josh Rice does his best scenery-chewing snivel with the line, "Go ahead Ben, swear to Gaaaaahd!" Who's going to shush you, the undead?
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 10/26/2007