A Zombie Apocalypse Bedroom Farce in Real Time

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Photo by Jake Badovski, Kłamię Studios

Stacy Madson and Becky Cofta in The Constructivists' Bed and Breakfast of the Damned

Stacy Madson and Becky Cofta in The Constructivists' Bed and Breakfast of the Damned

The Constructivists fuse dark, apocalyptic horror with clever satire in the deeply engaging world premiere of playwright Cameron McNary’s Bed and Breakfast of the Damned. The George Romero-style zombie horror genre gets grafted onto a light and enjoyable bedroom farce set in a pug-themed bed and breakfast. Director Jaimelyn Gray deftly works the fusion between the two genres as manifest through a cast that is impressively talented.  

Ken Miller and Matthew Scales play a couple of guys who are looking after a cozy little bed and breakfast during the zombie apocalypse. Phillip Steenbekkers and Molly Kempfer enter the picture at the beginning of the play as a young couple who have managed to make it to the tiny fortress of a hotel in the midst of all the chaos. Things get particularly complicated as the wives of the two men (played by Becky Cofta and Stacy Madson) find themselves in a compromising position that threatens the survival of the whole ensemble.  

The cast is brilliant. Miller’s got a sharp deadpan delivery. Scales is hilariously oblivious. Kempfer has an admirably captivating physicality onstage. Cofta delivers a delightfully nuanced performance. 

Like most of the best zombie fiction, McNary’s script cleverly explores the nature of consciousness and how everyone becomes something of a zombie in the modern world. Obsessions with sex, cleaning, security and so much more can keep individuals from being totally present for each other even in the fact of the most serious threats to basic human survival. The wide and exhaustive range of different themes being explored are particularly jaw-dropping when one considers that the whole show begins and ends in one brief burst of real time without a single intermission. A lot can happen in less than 90 minutes.  

Bed and Breakfast of the Damned runs through Sunday, Nov. 7 at the Broadway Theater Center Studio Theatre. For ticket reservations and more, visit The Constructivists online.