In a zombie story that never actually uses the word "zombie" — one of the more realistic decisions made here — playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury sticks a handful of survivors in an abandoned building and watches them squirm.

A few things stand out: There is a deep paranoia that infects the group that is not unlike recent concerns about Ebola. There's even a quarantine chamber of sorts; a man who wanders in without invitation is unceremoniously tossed in there for some undetermined length of time until everyone can be assured that he isn't infected. Sounds familiar, no?

That's an unintended but terrific coincidence (the play premiered in 2013) and it underscores how stories of zombies — or vampires, et cetera — can be these canny little allegories about real life fears and behaviors. Actress Kelly Parker plays a character who is essentially a version of "Election's" Tracy Flick: a little miss bossypants transported into a horror show. In the play's most trenchant moment, its sole black character offers up his theory of this ongoing apocalypse: It is the result of white entitlement gone amok. That's funny .

I like the premise enough — think "Walking Dead" crossed with the sardonic, human-beings-are-the- worst portraiture of "Lord of the Flies" and "No Exit." Ultimately, though, both the script and Nathan Robbel's direction for Tympanic Theatre fail to adhere to any kind of internal logic. You find yourself wondering about the viability of details that shouldn't matter, and story moments that should.

A word about the production's approach to seating: the audience is escorted into a pitch-black theater, just two at a time. Your guide, flashlight in hand, leads you to your seat. And then you are left there, in the darkness. It's a bit unnerving, which equals "good" in my book. What isn't as effective is how long it takes for everyone else to be seated: maybe 15 or 20 minutes, as you cool your heels with not much to grab the imagination except for a faint memory of the low-level anxiety that took hold when first entering the space.

"Social Creatures"

2 STARS

Through Nov. 16 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.; tickets are $15 at tympanictheatre.org

 

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