Play Analysis: Night Of The Living Dead

A couple years ago, the zombie apocalypse was a major discussion point. There were manuals and kits being sold to individuals who wanted to survive this supposed apocalypse. While the zombie apocalypse will most likely never happen, Night of the Living Dead proposed what would happen to a group if the apocalypse did occur. I attended the play at St. Charles Community College on September 28. The play is about a group of seven strangers fighting to survive the zombie apocalypse. By examining Aristotle’s components, one can see how the production was successful through the use of plot, character, theme, sound, and spectacle.

The plot starts off at a very quick pace. The scene opened up to Barbara and her brother, Johnny, at a graveyard mourning

Night of the Living Dead is all about a group trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. While a zombie apocalypse will unlikely occur, the plot could be viewed as a metaphor for different situations such as trying to survive a dinner with your entire family, taking a test, or getting through a typical day. In the production, the characters are faced with different options to survive and have to decide which is best. Harry believes that staying in the cellar is the best choice because the group would be out of sight from the zombies. Bill believes that staying upstairs is the best option, despite the zombies outside, because they could be seen by a rescue team and run if zombies had infiltrated the house. Tom believes that fueling up the truck is more beneficial because the group could drive to the nearest rescue point. While most people aren’t faced with life defining decisions everyday, choices do have to be made such as what to wear or eat. At the end of the production, Bill is the last one alive. Throughout the production, Bill was adamant on staying upstairs and boarding the house up. Because of his beliefs, Bill was the one to live the longest which proves the theme of the play: trust your