Unicorn stages violent comedy; zombies invade Coterie

BY: Russ Simmons, Theater Reviewer

Horror on stage ... Ben (Samuel T. Gaines) and Helen Cooper (Kimberely Queen) fight zombies in ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ performing nights only through Oct. 28 at the Coterie Theatre.

THE LIEUTENANT OF INishMORE

Acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh has a sense of humor as black as Irish coal. His comic touch has served him well in his award-winning dramas. The occasional jocularity prevented them from becoming overly oppressive.

With “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” McDonagh has concocted a full-blooded comedy (both literally and figuratively), and his wicked opus can now be seen at the Unicorn Theatre.

Mad Padraic (Darren Kennedy) is a violent loose cannon. Deemed by the Irish Republican Army to be unmanageable, he joins a splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army.

While he enjoys torturing criminals and British sympathizers, Padraic has genuine emotional attachment to only one thing, his black cat Wee Thomas.

His love for his pet proves to be a problem for his boozy dad, Donny (Theodore Swetz), and a dim lad named Davey (David Graham Jones). The cat has come to a mysteriously violent end while in Donny's care and Davey is the assumed culprit. When Padraic gets wind of Wee Thomas' fate, there will be hell to pay.

Wee Thomas' decimated head foreshadows the bloodbath that is to come as McDonagh employs over-the-top brutality to make a sly commentary on the pervasiveness (and banality) of violence in the modern world.

This well-crafted farce has been given a lively production by director Joseph Price and a solid cast. The actors skillfully tackle the tricky rural Irish dialect and their comic timing is equally impressive.

The talented ensemble also includes Bruce Roach, Patrick DuLaney and Anthony Vaughn Merchant as bumbling INLA members, T.J. Chasteen as a tortured drug pusher and Elana Kepner as a 16-year-old sharpshooter.

Of course, it is the dizzying carnage that will generate most of the post-theater coffee talk. The crack production staff at the Unicorn employs buckets of stage blood as McDonagh dares us to laugh at things we shouldn't – and we do.

Those who have ethical problems with the comic use of violence might want to skip this exercise in absurdity. Others will find it an incorrigible guilty pleasure.

“The Lieutenant of Inishmore” runs through Nov. 11 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. For information, call (816) 531-PLAY.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Back in 1968 when the grisly low-budget zombie movie “Night of the Living Dead” first appeared, an incredulous “Reader's Digest” asked, “Do you know what your children are watching?”

My, how things have changed since then. Today, the material is considered tame enough to be staged by the area's premier children's theater, The Coterie.

It may surprise some to learn that this stage version, directed by Late Night Theatre's Ron Megee, is not a send-up. With the exception of the musical finale, it's a straightforward adaptation that closely follows the creepy horror flick's simple storyline.

Eight people have holed up in a rural farmhouse in a desperate attempt at survival. Mysteriously, the recently deceased have come back to life and they crave human flesh.

Samuel T. Gaines leads the cast as Ben, a brave soul faced with battling the undead as well as coping with the understandably rattled living. Barbara (Angela Cristantello) has come unhinged and Mr. Cooper (Martin Buchanan) is complicating things with his cowardice.

The legion of zombies, made up of members of the Coterie's “How to Be a Zombie” class, eerily roam the audience, including Scott “Rex” Hobart, who plays menacing guitar licks to accompany the action.

Kimberely Queen, who plays the ill-fated Mrs. Cooper, also provides the zombies with their appropriately macabre makeup and Art Kent's atmospheric lighting is a big help, too.

While the gore doesn't quite approach the gruesome level of the movie, it's still too graphic for pre-teens. As such, the Coterie is only offering evening performances.

While some may be disappointed that Megee and company chose not to mine the material for its comic potential, “Night of the Living Dead” provides a few appropriate chills for the Halloween season.

“Night of the Living Dead” runs through Oct. 28 at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center, 2450 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo.

For ticket information, call (816) 474-6552.