An in-over-his-head ultra-low-budget horror director (John Reid Adams) is intent on herding his hapless cast — headlined by an airheaded influencer (Olivia Rocha) and an IBS-stricken actor (William Smeltzer) — through an ambitious single-shot zombie flick, despite the outbreak of an actual George A. Romero-esque apocalypse that quickly consumes his harried crew (Sean Derbyshire, Naomy Delgado). That was roughly the plot of Shin’ichirô Ueda’s movie One Cut of the Dead, but playwright David Strauss’ live immersive adaptation One Act of the Dead ups the metatextual ante with an additional layer of reality, endowing consenting participants as members of the press or producers invited to observe the ill-fated filming of a film about making a film (I think).
Audience members gather in front of OMA and are led along the sidewalks to the opposite side of the museum, following increasingly violent vignettes along the path. You can watch primary scenes play out or eavesdrop on the peanut gallery; think of it a little like an al fresco Sleep No More, with more gory gross-out gags. The hero of the hour turns out to be Susan Woodbury as the director’s wife, who goes full-bore Buffy on the undead assailants’ asses under Bill Warriner’s splat-stick direction, which would make Sam Raimi grin.
The show-within-a-show-within-a-show structure left me scratching my head as to which zombies were “fake” or “real,” or even where exactly I should stand, but I certainly was never bored once the blood started spraying. I’m looking forward to watching the finished movie, which is emailed to attendees afterwards, but if they monetize my likeness I’d better get residuals.
One Act of the Dead
Site-specific: Meet by the fountain in front of Orlando Museum of Art
60 minutes; 13 & up
$15
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.