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Robert Trussell’s Review of Bucket of Blood

Robert Trussell reviews The Living Room’s recent production of Bucket of Blood.

Tongue-in-cheek post-modernism gets a thorough workout in the Living Room production of “A Bucket of Blood,” a show in which the performers on stage appear to having at least as much fun as the audience.

Screenwriter-turned-playwright Mitch Brian serves up an amusing adaptation of a 1959 Roger Corman movie, a horror flick that satirized beatnik culture and the modern art world. Brian translates the essence of the film to the Living Room stage, more or less without commentary, and even assigns himself a small role as an art critic.

The plot revolves around a shy coffeehouse busboy named Walter (Matt Weiss), who puts up with a fair amount of verbal abuse from his employer (Damian Blake). Carla (Kimberely Queen) is friendlier to Walter, who is unabashedly enthralled by Maxwell Brock (Forrest Attaway), a beat poet given to extemporaneous improvisations with the house band.

Read the rest here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/30/3525820/two-performers-stand-out-in-bucket.html

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A Bucket of Blood Opens Tonight

The Living Room: A Bucket of Blood

March 21 – April 1
A Bucket of Blood

Purchase Tickets Online

An exciting and original brand spankin’ new show called A Bucket of Blood is our March production! Much like last year’s March slot, The Wall, it is original and adapted especially for us! Another thing in common is Cody Wyoming’s hands on it. This is a stage adaptation by Mitch Brian (Sorority House of the Dead) of a 1959 cult horror film about the beatnik movement, and will include a live jazz score, original art and a lot of laughs!

Adapted from the ultra-low budget 1959 Roger Corman movie of the same name, it is the story of Walter Paisley, a put upon busboy in a Greenwich Village coffee shop who longs to be an artist like the beatniks, poets and painters who populate the cafe where he works.

Watch the video trailer!

Through a series of misfortunes, a cat is accidentally killed and Walter, in order to hide the tragedy, covers it in clay and passes it off as an original statue. The half baked plan works and Walter becomes an overnight sensation in the Village art scene. In order to create more art, Walter resorts to murder propelling his rise and eventual fall.

This production of A Bucket of Blood, is a comedy (albeit a very dark comedy), but not a parody of the original film. It is both a loving homage to the cult film as well as a theatrical reinvention, creating an immersive environment where the audience is transported back to 1959, replete with a live jazz score. It is also a commentary on the nature of art and on the self-importance that frequently comes with its creation.

It stars Matt Weiss as Walter Paisley, as well as Kimberely Queen, Forrest Attaway, Damian Blake, Meredith Wolfe, Kelly Main, Brian Stubler, Emma Taylor, Matt Anderson, Coleman Crenshaw, and Rick Williamson. Providing the music will be Johnny Hamil, Jeff Freling, Kent Burnham, Christian Hankel, and Katie Gilchrist.

Director Cody Wyoming has been a fan of the film and low budget/ exploitation films in general for a long time and looks forward to bringing some of the good natured salaciousness and sleaze inherent in the material to the stage.

Playwright Mitch Brian continues to explore the relationship between cinema and live performance as he did with two previous hit productions Maul of the Dead and Sorority House of the Dead.

Lights by Moose Kimball, Design by Kimberely Queen and Matt Weiss, Sculpture by Regina Weller, Tabitha Terry-Treml, and Sonya Andrews.

Preview 8:00, March 22nd. Opening Night Friday, March 23rd at 8:00. Closing night Sunday, April 1st. See our Calendar for show times.

 

Originally posted on The Living Room‘s website.