Oakland Center goes for scares with Night of the Living Dead

By Milan Paurich

The director said people of all ages turned out to audition to be zombies.

The hills are alive with the sound of zombies.

That’s the tune they’ll be singing at the Oakland Center for the Arts over the next two weekends as a stage version of George A. Romero’s epochal, shot-in-Pittsburgh 1968 horror film “Night of the Living Dead” hits the boards.

In a recent interview, the show’s director, Christopher Fidram, discussed the difficulties of bringing “Living Dead” alive, and why zombies scare the bejesus out of him.

Q. What initially attracted you to a stage adaptation of “Night of the Living Dead”?

A. I chose “Night of the Living Dead” because zombies terrify me. They’re not seductive or debonair like vampires. You can’t negotiate with them, you can only run. Maybe I just have a fear of running (laughs).

Something resonated with me after seeing “Living Dead” for the first time. It felt disturbingly real. For years I pushed around the idea of putting the story on stage, but I wasn’t completely sure how to do it.

My theatrical tastes usually favor contemporary drama and Pulitzer pieces. But this season I wanted to step back from my comfort zone and direct something that’s a bona fide guilty pleasure. Many people love Halloween, though some don’t necessarily want to dress up and attend parties. Seeing this show is the perfect way to indulge in the season. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than a costume rental.

Q. Have you always been a zombie movie fan?

A. I’m a lifelong fan of the horror classics. When I was 12, my parents bought me a Bell and Howell projector, along with dozens of black and white horror films. We’d all sit in the basement watching “Dr. Cyclops” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man” on Super 8mm.

As a kid, I used to stay up late watching Bill Cardille’s “Chiller Theater” on Pittsburgh’s Channel 11. We didn’t have cable, so the channel was always covered with static. Cardille is a Pittsburgh legend and played the TV reporter in “Night of the Living Dead.”

Q. Do you have any fears that “Night of the Living Dead” might not work on stage?

A. Yes and no. There’s a great risk in staging any material that’s so ingrained in the mind of the audience. We’re not trying to outdo the film; it’s a classic. We’re paying homage, and we’ve been careful to neither completely recreate the movie or distort it from its original context.

Q. For any of our readers who might not be familiar with “Night of the Living Dead,” what’s the basic storyline?

A. The play takes place in the late ’60s. It begins with a brother and sister visiting a cemetery to place a wreath on their father’s grave. Suffice it to say, they soon embark on the worst night of their lives.

Q. How difficult has it been for you to stage “Night of the Living Dead” “straight” instead of the more obvious “camp” approach?

A. Few zombie plays attempt to go beyond merely spoofing the genre. I considered taking that approach because it’s fun to laugh at what scares you. But the cast and I both agreed early on that the greater challenge is to play the material at face value, and to sustain the intensity of the nightmare. Not surprisingly, you still derive some humor from the absurdity of it all. So if people want to chuckle, that’s okay, too.

Q. What were the auditions like? Did a lot of people show up simply because they wanted to live out their fantasy of being a flesh-eating zombie?

A. The auditions were a scream! People of all ages and sizes showed up — many of whom I’d never met before — and they all wanted to play the living dead. The audition sheet had questions rarely asked by directors: e.g., “Do you have any personal or moral convictions that would prevent you from simulating the act of eating people?” My past directing experiences taught me to ask those questions up front. Still, everyone responded, “Heck no!” They just wanted to menace the living in any way they could.

Q. One of the things most associated with “Night of the Living Dead,” or any zombie flick for that matter, are the gross-out effects. How do you satisfy the audience’s hankering for that sort of thing within the context of live theater — and minus an extravagant budget for squib effects and plastic intestines?

A. It’s tricky, because with a live show you have to be careful. Our production has a fair share of makeup and gore. But on stage, even well-executed special effects will — more often than not — produce laughter. When I think of the horror films that really scared me when I was growing up, I remember being the most frightened by what lurked outside the window. The difference between film and stage is that film does all the work for you whereas stage relies on the power of suggestion. You have to give the audience an opportunity to fill in the blanks and let them complete the picture in their head.

Q. The enlightened racial politics of “Night of the Living Dead” — e.g., making an African-American male the ostensible savior of a dwindling band of survivors — have always made it seem like a socially progressive work. Have you retained that sensibility in the stage version, or does it exist in a political vacuum?

A. When the movie came out, America was involved in a divisive war, people were questioning the role of the government and there was a great national debate over civil liberties. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? (laughs) It’s tempting to politicize a piece like this, and many believe the film’s greatness stems from what can be inferred about race, social issues and mob mentality. Those aspects can’t help but inform the play. Most audiences, though, are just craving good old-fashioned scares. They want to see people get eaten, and that’s what they’re going to get.