Death Valley

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Death Valley

Antimatter Collective at the Bushwick Starr

Reviewed by Mitch Montgomery

June 27, 2011

Photo by Jessica Olm

Thanks to a cunning transposition of genre conventions, the Western-zombie mash-up "Death Valley," written and fight directed by Adam Scott Mazer, comes off tighter than Dick's hatband. Originally developed episodically with director Dan Rogers for Vampire Cowboys' Saturday Night Saloon, Antimatter Collective's production at the Bushwick Starr presents the bleakly funny play in its rip-roarin', gut-spillin' entirety.

Getting zombies and cowboys in cahoots couldn't have been an easy rodeo for Mazer and Rogers. First off, both genres hinge on an element not available in live theater: the chase. As Mazer's characters, like the shifty drifter Lawrence and the hardhearted brothel gal Adele, can only ever get a stage-length away from the menacing undead that have overtaken their small 1880s Texas town, the creators had to come up with some clever tricks to keep the story moving. Mazer's snappy fight choreography relies heavily on grappling when the zombies get close, their melted, gnawing faces—makeup designer Alexandra Hellquist works wonders—always mere inches away from our succulent heroes, until some last-minute maneuver inevitably allows escape.

But don't worry; "Death Valley" delivers the merciless body count essential to zombie tales, with Stephanie Cox-Williams' agreeably putrid gore effects eliciting waves of groaning delight from the audience. It's a solid bet that not everyone in Lawrence and Adele's party will make it to the nearby train that represents their last hope for survival. We never quite learn why there are zombies in the Wild West, but we do learn an awful lot about the characters' natures along the way, like who is lily-livered, who is willing to kill an infected friend, and who the real scoundrels of the bunch are.

Will Cespedes swaggers well as Lawrence, the overtly Christian cowboy with the Machiavellian grin. Patrick Harrison outdoes himself in a handful of supporting roles, most notably as the first man to make the grizzly, hacking transformation into a zombie. Alexandra Panzer deserves top marks in the cast, however, for imbuing the rough-and-tumble Adele with surprising inner life.

Presented by Antimatter Collective at the Bushwick Starr, 207 Starr St., Brooklyn, N.Y. June 24–July 10. Schedule varies. (800) 838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com.