The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

Zombies Wicked This Way Come

This certainly wasn't the plague that I always thought closed the theaters in Shakespeare's time. But did zombies even exist back then?

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison kicks off Halloween week on Monday, October 30, at 7:30 p.m. with its annual "Something Wicked This Way Comes" production, a staged event featuring company members and guest artists. This year's program will be a script-in-hand staged reading of "William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead" by John Heimbuch.

Directed by Brian B. Crowe, the story is set in London, 1599, as William Shakespeare opens the Globe Playhouse with his latest play, Henry V. When the company's costumer is bitten by a plague-ridden madman, life suddenly takes a turn for the worse. The affliction spreads through London, and the Queen and her men arrive seeking safety just as the Globe is placed in quarantine. The trapped company must weigh the viability of escape, finding a cure, and maintaining artistic integrity without dying for it in this "true and accurate account of the Elizabethan zombie plague." So sayeth the promotional flyer.

The show also features music by John Hoge on the theremin, an electronic instrument often used for eerie soundtracks.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" will be performed at the company's F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre on the campus of Drew University in Madison. For tickets, click here.

And with Halloween just around the corner, it's not too early to be thinking about Christmas. "Something Merry This Way Comes" is scheduled for Monday, December 11, at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre. This "annual holiday gift for our audience," is a collage of holiday tales, songs, and poems read by company members, says a company flyer. "We try to provide an antidote to the commercial glitz and blitz that permeates our lives each year at holiday time with this refreshing, nostalgic celebration of all the good things that the season symbolizes and encourages."

October 27, 2017

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