Zombies! Shakespeare! Martial Arts! From the Pork Filled Players!
Zombies, Shakespeare and martial arts collide in Living Dead in Denmark, the new show from the Pork Filled Players, playing May 1 to 24, at the Theatre Off Jackson (409 7th Ave. S. in Seattle's International District).
A post-apocalyptic Denmark faces an invasion of the living dead and only Lady Macbeth, Juliet and a really pissed off Ophelia can save it. Will they do or will they die (and maybe die again for good measure)? Catch the West Coast premiere of the long running New York hit play by Qui Nguyen (originally produced by Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company in May 2006, NYC), with original music by Dan Deming, and directed by Lisa Anne Glomb, with arrangements and orchestration by Brad Nelson.
A critical rave at the 2007 National Asian American Theatre Festival, Living Dead is the unauthorized action adventure sequel to Hamlet, fusing the immortal Bard with B-movie sensibility in a perfect kickoff for Asian Pacific Heritage Month.
Rated PG 13 for strong language, violence, affirmative action to zombie Americans and other attitudes offensive to neo-conservatives, Living Dead features Jose Abaoag (Sex in Seattle, Big Hunk O’ Burnin’ Love), Tadd Alexander, Bryan Bender, Deniece Bleha, Philip Clarke, Benjamin Elterman, Andrea Nelson, Marvin Newton, May Nguyen and Miko Premo (Sex in Seattle, Big Hunk O’ Burnin’ Love).
The creative team for Living Dead includes Maggie Lee (long time producer/writer/ tech master for PFP); fight choreographer Lisa Marie Nakamura (producer/creator for the long running Sex in Seattle series), costume designer Clare Hungate-Hawk, stage manager Jennifer O'Brien and production assistant Amy Lu, all overseen by producer Roger Tang (Godfather of Asian American theatre, according to A. Magazine).
Tickets are $15 general / $10 students/seniors and can be purchased online at www.ticketwindowonline.com (206/325-6500). Shows are at 8 pm, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations and more information are available at oink@porkfilled.com, www.porkfilled.com and 206/365-0282.
Since 1997, the Pork Filled Players have titillated audiences of every race, creed and gender across the Northwest. Wielding its wit like a scalpel (or dull meat cleaver as circumstances call for), the Players field both Seattle’s oldest sketch comedy group and the region’s longest running Asian American theatre.
Major festival appearances include:
• SketchFest Seattle, the nation’s first non-profit sketch comedy festival;
• SketchOff@%#? (Vancouver, BC), the first Asian North American sketch comedy festival);
• Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual arts extravaganza, and
• the Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival.
At home with both sketch comedy and traditional theatre, the Players use humor to whack away at notions of race, politics and social norms in 21st Century America. The Players are fully armed in their mission to achieve maximum tongue-in-cheekiness, biting cultural and political satire and hilarious racial disharmony with their brand of Amazing Kung-Fu Griptm zaniness.
