Premiering in early 2020, with a successful UK tour cut short by theatre closures in the wake of COVID-19, Night of the Living Dead™ – Remix is the latest production by imitating the dog. As a performance collective, imitating the dog are known for their breadth – from stagings of comic serials to musical theatre, and from adaptions of classical novels, including Heart of Darkness (2018), to Cold War spy dramas. Now, turning to a darker Americana aesthetic, their new ‘remix’ of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) is a striking new entry to the imitating the dog catalogue.
Photography Credit: Ed Waring
The original Night of the Living Dead was a ground-breaking take on a horror icon which dates back to Golden Age Hollywood cinema. Beginning with Victor Halperin’s voodoo-themed The White Zombie (1932), the zombie evolved through war-time 1940s films, including the Nazi-themed King of the Zombies (Jean Yarbrough, 1941), and through 1950s imaginings of speculative nuclear wars, including Creature With the Atom Brain (Edward L. Cahn, 1955). Romero’s landmark film shook off the zombie’s supernatural origins and transformed it into a living and visceral threat which turned the spotlight onto profound injustices at the heart of US society. Read more
