Review: Chambers Theatre's "THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU" Immerses Audience in Zombie Horror

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The zombies are coming...and at Chambers Theatre, there’s nowhere to hide.

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“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” What begins as a teasing warning becomes terrifyingly real in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead , the 1968 film that helped redefine modern horror and gave generations of moviegoers a very good reason to be suspicious of cemeteries after dark. Heath Thompson’s THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU – A THEATRICAL REIMAGINING OF NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD takes Romero’s familiar nightmare and brings it into the immediate, confined world of live theatre. Something terrible is happening outside: the dead are waking, the living are under attack, no one understands why, and help is not coming. After a traumatic encounter, siblings Johnny and Barbara seek refuge in an isolated house, where they are soon joined by other survivors, including Ben, who may offer their best chance of making it through the night.

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Thompson’s adaptation is interested in more than simply putting zombies onstage. Like Romero’s film, the horror outside the house creates pressure on everything happening inside it. Confined together with limited information and no guarantee of rescue, the survivors must confront fear, mistrust, competing ideas about leadership, and one another. The claustrophobic setting becomes part of the storytelling, allowing the piece to function as both horror and character study while preserving the social commentary that has helped Night of the Living Dead endure far beyond its original moment.

Chambers Theatre in Buda provides an intriguing home for the world premiere of this new adaptation during the Halloween season. Horror has a special advantage in an intimate live setting: there is no screen separating the audience from the people trying to survive the night, and no camera conveniently looking away when something begins moving in the darkness. With THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU, a classic piece of American horror gets a new theatrical life, and this time, the audience is trapped in the room with it.

It was quite unnerving watching zombies when there is no comfortable proscenium arch keeping them safely on the other side of the room. Chambers Theatre’s production of THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU takes full advantage of its intimate space, letting the undead wander through entrances, exits, curtains, and audience areas until I found myself wondering, “Are they going to touch us?” That is precisely the sort of question a zombie show ought to inspire.

Playwright and director Heath Thompson has created a smart theatrical reworking of George A. Romero’s horror classic, and the script itself feels as though it has room to grow even more, delightfully so. Thompson directs a mixed community-theatre company of children, teens, and adults with a good sense of momentum and mounting danger. Carter Holland’s practical cabin set is especially effective: it feels appropriately isolated and lived-in, with the basement door at stage right becoming an important visual presence. Laura Ray’s sound-effect design and the projections by Meridian Perkins and Bridget Gates deepen the atmosphere without overwhelming the action.

At the center of the survivors is Adam Marrero’s Ben, a strong, effective presence who naturally assumes leadership as the danger grows. Laura Ray gives Barbara a quieter, more vulnerable interpretation, but finds her strength when the character needs it most. Rosalind Gates brings convincing teenage angst to Morgan, while Olivia Jamison gives Lydia a bold physical presence. Jessica Allen Wolff is crazily good as Claire, combining fierce attachment to Mitch with enough spunk and protectiveness to make her memorable. Brian Price, meanwhile, makes Mitch so thoroughly unsympathetic that when trouble finally finds him, I discovered I had remarkably little sympathy to spare - which means Price is doing his job rather well. James Nieburh and Stephanie Nelson provide support as Richard and Agnes.

Dan Wolff has one of the evening’s most effective sequences as Johnny. His transformation into a zombie unfolds slowly and agonizingly, happening almost under the noses of characters who seem oblivious to what the audience can plainly see. Then there are the zombies themselves: Kyle Wilke, Evan Zander Marsh, Meredith Yarbrough, David D’Alonzo, Andreanna Ditton, Adia Jones, Harrison Moore, and Meridian Perkins. Individually, they do not need flashy moments; collectively, they are wonderfully creepy. Their ability to emerge from seemingly anywhere makes the open performance space part of the horror rather than simply a place to watch it.

The production becomes particularly energetic as the physical confrontations escalate. Kevin Gates’ fight choreography, with Marrero serving as fight captain, pays off especially well in the later battles with the zombies. Stage manager and sound-board operator Karin Cunningham deserves recognition for coordinating a production with so many entrances, exits, effects, and moving bodies, with Osprie Meuth and Mike D’Alonzo operating the lighting. The technical elements work together to make this modest space feel much less safe than it did when the audience walked in.

The ending is the one place where my response became more complicated. Watching this version’s Black hero dispatched so abruptly is uncomfortable, and intentionally or otherwise, that discomfort reaches back to Romero’s 1968 film. Romero said that Ben was originally conceived as white and that Duane Jones was cast because he was the best actor for the role; the filmmakers did not rewrite the story around his race. Yet placing a Black man at the center of the story transformed the imagery, particularly its ending, in which the surviving Ben is casually mistaken for one of the undead and killed. Romero later acknowledged how powerfully that resonated against the racial realities of 1968. More than half a century later, that ending still lands hard, and perhaps that is part of what makes THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU intriguing. Beneath the creepy makeup, groaning undead, and occasional desire to pull your feet safely beneath your chair, Thompson’s adaptation has the beginnings of something that can do what good horror often does best: scare us first, then leave us with something considerably more unsettling to think about on the way home.

For audiences who enjoy their theatre with a healthy dose of suspense, blood, and shambling undead, THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU is well worth a trip to Chambers Theatre. The intimate setting makes the experience especially fun and just uncomfortable enough that you may find yourself keeping an eye on the aisle beside you. A word of caution for families, however: despite children and youth appearing in the company, this is not necessarily a show for younger audience members. The production includes murder, gunshots, blood, frightening imagery, violence, and other intense horror content. Parents and caregivers should consider their child’s comfort with that material before bringing them along. For everyone else: go enjoy the show, keep your wits about you, and remember, if someone sitting nearby starts looking a little pale and hungry, you might want to change seats.

THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU- A THEATRICAL REIMAGINING OF NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

by Heath Thompson, adapted from Night of the Living Dead

Theater Company: Chambers Theatre Company

Venue: 121 N. Main Street, Inspired Minds Arts Center, Buda, TX, 78710

September 25 - October 11, 2026; Fridays-Sundays,

Running Time: 2 hours, one 15-minute intermission

Tickets: $15-22

Ticket Link: https://www.inspiredminds.art/event-details/theyre-coming-to-get-you-2026-09-25-19-30

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/austin/article/Review-THEYRE-COMING-TO-GET-YOU-20260928)._