What would you do in the event of a zombie apocalypse? Super fun family-friendly show Zombie Thoughts presents a choose your own adventure where you get to lead two characters, Sam and Pig, through that dilemma. Even more fun, you get to choose who plays who, with actor Jose Talite (in his stage debut) and Monica Sayers (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) learning both roles as the brave souls running the gauntlet of a brains-for-snacks world.
Presented by the National Theatre of Parramatta at Riverside Theatres from May 29 to June 5, it's written by mother and son team Jennifer A. Kokai and Oliver Kokai-Means and is directed by Warwick Doddrell. No two shows will be the same, as the audience gets to decide what the actors do in every situation they face.
As intense as it sounds, rest assured this is more Shaun of the Dead than Dawn of the Dead, aimed at younger audiences and the one in seven kids who struggle with anxiety. Oliver is one of them, and he created Zombie Thoughts when he was nine as a way to help young folks like him develop coping mechanisms in a fun way.
The show is great for families and anyone who has experienced anxiety. “I’m so excited to work on the show,” Doddrell says. “We’ve been developing and designing the work with an incredible team of artists and will finally get to put it all together to thrill audiences. It's wrapped up in a retro-theatrical, interactive fantasy adventure, where the audience actively participates to help our heroes overcome the big bad.”