Lethbridge is going to have more gory, bloody fun than a bloody chainsaw when Hatrix Theatre brings the Evil Dead the Musical to life at the Moose Hall, Oct. 30-Nov. 8.
It will be so much bloody fun, that the first three rows have been designated a splatter zone.
“It’s pretty much a horror-comedy,” said Justin Black, who plays Ash in the production — the role which was originally played by Bruce Campbell.
“It’s a musical based on three movies created in the ’80s and early ’90s— Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness,” he summarized. He was really familiar with the movies, though not as familiar with the musical.
Most of the characters in the musical come from the second movie, most of the dialogue comes from the first movie and it is set in a cabin in the woods, where the first and second movies were set.
The plot surrounds Ash and his friends who go on vacation to a cabin in the woods where the undead have been accidentally released. Kandarian demons and zombies invade and infect pretty much all of them as mayhem / hilarity ensues. There is a punning zombie in the cellar and Ash loses his hand, which comes back to life and causes a kerfuffle.
“ I’m very familiar with the movies. They are a lot of fun,” said Black, who found out about auditions in a nick of time through the Lethbridge theatre community.
“ I almost missed my chance to audition,” he said.
“ Who wouldn’t want to get a chance to be a Bruce Campbell character and kill zombies,” he enthused during a break from rehearsal where he was wielding a chainsaw in one stump of a hand and his ‘boom stick’ in the other during the productions.