Fast-thinking, frenetic fun that puts the kids in charge of handling a zombie apocalypse. What could possibly go wrong?Rating
Good!
It’s Saturday afternoon in the middle of the summer holidays: the kids have played far too many games of Monopoly, and Candy Crush has become mindlessly repetitive. But don’t worry! Deep in the bowels of the Bridewell Theatre, there’s an alternative, family-friendly(?) activity to tempt them with. What is it? Why, the zombie apocalypse, of course!
Improv The Dead are no strangers to Camden Fringe, and you may well have seen their adult version of this completely improvised show. Pretty much in the style of a delightfully cheesy B-movie, ZomBeebies encourages the audience to guide the tale of a blood-curdling, brain-munching, civilisation-threatening zombie invasion by deciding on locations, activities and themes, which the actors must perform spontaneously and without any prior knowledge of what their instructions will be. Of course, kids are going to do it better and weirder, aren’t they? And they certainly didn’t disappoint on this occasion.
As we enter the theatre, there are already bodies littered around and zombies guzzling strawberry lace intestines from corpses, their gaping, gruesome wounds described by sparkly red sequins and ribbons. It’s a great use of the space, with odd figures popping up all around. In a dynamic introduction, the audience is quickly prompted to assign names and characters, getting the party started and (imitation) blood flowing. It’s a quick-witted team of seven improvisers who take on board a series of utterly ridiculous prompts and make them into something energetically inventive. Today, we’re in a Hawaii-styled theme park in Ohio, where one of the protagonists is a failed American Footballer turned piña colada. Work that one out if you can…There aren’t only ordinary zombies, but also sentient banana zombies, and a trip into space is required to save the day. Those kids do like to set a challenge!
Throughout, the team responds rapidly and ingeniously to create silly scenarios that have the audience laughing out loud and keen to get involved. It’s all by invitation – no need to worry you’ll be dragged into anything – and definitely no patronising the patrons. After a few minutes, many of the children are shouting out utterly bonkers ideas, testing the team to their fullest. And they take it on the nose, constantly adjusting to keep the storyline flowing, characters considered, and an actual resolution in sight. Hats off to them, because it was quite some journey today (into space via a fountain filled with spicy cocktail in a haunted maze, while being chased by the living dead)! Come the end, the story was neatly wound up, the gore mopped up, and happy families sat amazed and impressed at what had been achieved.
This is a show that changes completely with every audience, so who knows what you might see should you go. At the core of it, however, is a fun, friendly, and well-executed entertainment where the kids wield the power of imagination and the action can safely go as far as they choose to take it.
Produced by Improv the Dead
Zombeebies has completed its run at the Bridewell Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe
