By Lisa Nguyen
Rebecca Northan, who stars as Annie in Evil Dead: The Musical, found her love of theatre doing improvisation in Calgary’s own Loose Moose Theatre when she was 16 and it remains one of her favourite venues to perform in.
A professor once told Northan, a University of Calgary drama graduate, about the importance of getting to know those in her program, as they would eventually be the people she would work with. Fifteen years later, Northan reunites with some fellow U of C drama graduates to put on the theatrical production of Evil Dead: The Musical.
“This is one of the most amazingly funny and talented group[s] of actors,” raves Northan. “Our chemistry is amazing and we all have moments when we shake our heads in awe that we are getting paid to have so much fun!”
Sam Raimi’s gory humour possessed audiences following the release of Evil Dead in 1981 and the movie series saw enormous cult popularity, with sequels in 1987 and 1992. Originally a fringe show in Toronto, it made its way to Broadway, later returning to Toronto because of the dedicated Canadian fans.
Ryan Luhning, the artistic director of Ground Zero Theatre, took Northan to see the Toronto mounting. Northan says that in the middle of the show she leaned over and whispered to Luhning:
“This is pretty funny, but if you cast me, I will make it even more hilarious.”
Northan and her fellow actors conjure a killer show, filled with singing zombies and splatacular bloody good comedy. Gore lovers will laugh their guts out and give a demon-possessed hand of applause for this horror-fueled laugh fest. Watch out or you will get sucked into a vortex of demonic giggling, as blood sprays you in the three-row “splatter zone.”
“Even those who are not die-hard fans of the movies will still appreciate the brilliant ridiculousness of a bunch of singing and dancing zombies,” says Northan.
Grab your boomstick and get into the heads of the evil undead in the theatrical amalgamation of Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and The Army of Darkness.
Lifelong fans mark your calendars for the greatest, most grotesque necrocomedy — or be dead by dawn.