Let’s see… how should I put this? “Infection” is… not good. It’s a play for one thing, not a movie, so right away one goes in with a seperate set of expectations. It’s billed as a zombie play to boot, and having seen “Evil Dead: The Musical”, maybe I went in expecting too much.

The concept sounded great; it’s the story of a group of actors rehearsing for a show (a play within a play, how meta!) who are then attacked by zombies. Well, hot diggedy damn, it sure took fucking long enough for the first zombie to show up. First of all, the house lights never went down, so it was sort of awkward for the audience because we weren’t quite sure if it had even began, which wasn’t helped by the false start due to technical difficulties. Then it was just a series of little singing/dancing acts that were horribly paced. Seriously, some dude behind me commented to his companion that the pacing was shit and all I could do was silently agree. I kept waiting for the zombies to show up and at one point looked at my watch out of exasperation, only to realize that an hour had already gone by! One hour in and NOTHING had happened yet!

But I feel bad trashing this show because the thing is, I thouroughly enjoyed myself. Some of the show-within-a-show acts were really amusing and I laughed my ass off. Others were more painful but overall I was entertained. And when the zombies finally showed up things continued to be hilariously entertaining. I mean, still no narrative whatsoever, but lots of good fun.

I must also note that there were a few moments of innovation, with a drop screen showing video footage being used to nice effect. Again there were some technical difficulties but the actor playing the unseen “sound guy” improvised his way through them beautifully.

It’s a home-grown production. The brainchild of Isabelle Stephen, Quebec’s scream queen (who knew?) So I wanted to like it. I wanted to support local talent. It’s just, you know… not that good.

I have a few other complaints but there’s no point going into them. It is what it is. So all I can say is: good effort.

[rating:25]

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