Shakespeare meets “The Walking Dead” This Halloween!

 

“IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE, WHY AM I EATING THESE BRAINS?”

Shakespeare meets The Walking Dead in Bag&Baggage Productions’
Twelfth Night Of The Living Dead this Halloween

 

Hillsboro, OR – “Aaaaaaaaaarggggggggghhhhhhhhhmmmmwwwww,” says Viola in the first scene of Brian McInnis Smallwood’s Zombie-Shakespeare mash-up, Twelfth Night of the Living Dead, set to shamble onto the Venetian Theatre stage in Hillsboro this Halloween.

“It isn’t the best iambic pentameter that Shakespeare ever wrote,” says Dallas Myers, Bag&Baggage Resident Acting Company member and Director of the company’s first-ever Halloween production. “But then again, Shakespeare never imagined Viola would bite someone’s finger off, either.”

An underground hit in both New York and Los Angeles for the past ten years, Twelfth Night of the Living Dead is exactly what the title suggests; a hilarious, tongue-ripped-out-of-cheek retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

“You may remember that, at the beginning of Twelfth Night, there is a terrible shipwreck that deposits Viola onto the shores of Ilyria,” says Myers, who appeared in Bag&Baggage’s more traditional version of the show as Feste in 2010. “Well, in this version the ship is hit by a meteorite from outer space and everyone on board is instantly transformed into blood thirsty zombies.”

Chaos, and hysteria, naturally ensue as Viola, Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek have to both fight off hordes of the undead while also trying to unite Orsino and Viola in true love.

“Yeah, that true love thing? Doesn’t happen. Too many severed arteries,” says Myers.

Myers, who has appeared in more than 10 Bag&Baggage shows since 2007, intends to fill the production with references to some of the best-know and best-loved zombie films of the past 30 years, including Sean of the Dead, Zombieland, Night of the Living Dead, and even Scooby-Doo. “We are going all out for this one,” he says, wiping a trickle of fake blood off his shirt. “It will be a zombie feast in more ways than one.”

The production, over 6 performances from October 26 – 31^st, 2013 is the first Halloween themed show for Bag&Baggage, the resident professional theatre company at the Venetian Theatre in downtown Hillsboro.

Scott Palmer, Artistic Director, says, “We wanted to do something different, something that would allow us to do a classical work while at the same time having some good old fashioned Halloween fun; this script was dead on.”

The performance runs each evening at 7:30pm from October 26 – October 31, 2013.

Tickets available online at www.bagnbaggage.org or by calling the box office at 503 345 9590.

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Calendar Listings:

Twelfth Night of the Living Dead
by Brian McInnis Smallwood, Directed by Dallas Myers
7:30pm
October 26 – 31^st, 2013
The Venetian Theatre
253 E Main Street
Hillsboro, OR 97123
Tickets available at www.bagnbaggage.org or by calling the box office at 503 345 9590