You got zombies in my Shakespeare...say!

The big hit of the 2008 Minnesota Fringe Festival is Shakespeare's Land of the Dead. It starts with an alarmingly simple concept -- what if a George A. Romero-style zombie apocalypse happened in 1599, the night Shakespeare's Henry V opened -- and builds from there. The show deserves its hit status. The play is polished, well-conceived, written and acted. Beyond that, playwright John Heimbuch understands the conventions and rhythms of this kind of horror story, with echoes of Night of the Living Dead (either staying in the safety of the Globe theater or making a go of it outside) and I Am Legend (destroying London Bridge to stop the spread of the plague; though this is a motif that could have been pulled from any number of films). This isn't as easy as it looks -- witness the complete failure of another Fringe show, The Great American Horror Movie Musical, to show any understanding of the genre and, consequently, falling flat on its face.

There's also an interesting drama going on inside the Globe, with a number of personal and political currents running throughout, from the return of Will Kemp, an actor who has left the company; to Francis Bacon asking for Shakespeare to put his name to a play the knight has written; to an appearance by the Queen herself. 

The show needs a bit of polish -- what Fringe show doesn't -- to focus us more on the inside drama, especially early on in the show, before the zombies appear. As far as the zombies go, they're off stage for long stretches here and it's easy to forget their presence. That decision is understandable in this production, as they're on the Rarig Center's Thrust Stage, and it would look just silly to have the zombies hanging out, waiting for their cue. It's not that I want to see them constantly, but their presence needs to be felt throughout. Oddly enough, a smaller stage would fit the show well. It would give them a chance to sell the work's claustrophobia (another important part of a zombie film, even the mall in Dawn of the Dead confined the characters to a small world) and maybe do more tricks with the creatures.

The show is near the end of it's Fringe run, though I'm sure it'll be part of a last-night "hits" showcase. And considering the huge audiences (the line for tickets last night stretched outside of the Rarig Center) I imagine a future production(s) is in the cards here.

My Fringe reviews are up at City Pages now. Go, visit, plan your weekend.