On stage, no one can hear you scream.
What comes into mind whenever a high school stage play is brought up? Literary classics like Shakespeare? Or perhaps The Wizard of Oz?
Well, that wasn't the case for the theater club of North Bergen High School of New Jersey, who in 2019 made a school play of none other than... Ridley Scott's Alien.
The play initally ran in 2019 with very little fanfare before gaining plenty of traction online after a Reddit post went viral. Attention to the production eventually gained much public attention to the point that even Sigourney Weaver herself endorsed the production and attended its showing in person, and director Ridley Scott donated $5,000 to fund an encore release of the show.
The full production can be watched here.
Alien: The Play provides examples of:
- Adaptational Comic Relief: Brett and Parker are portrayed here in a more comedic light as Those Two Guys, making jokes and banter during intermission scenes. Naturally, when Brett dies, things take a turn for the darker.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Ripley has red hair in this version.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: A couple of jokes are added in by the comic-relief portrayal of Brett.
- Denser and Wackier: The portrayal of Brett and Parker as the two comic-relief side characters.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: During one intermission, the Alien stalks about among the audience in near total darkness, occasionally being illuminated by stage lights for a jump scare.
- Genre Savvy: Brett muses that he feels like he's "In one of those movies where everyone dies."
- It Will Never Catch On: "Googling" (looking up information on the internet) has fallen by the wayside.
- Lighter and Softer: A few intermissions add some light-hearted jokes and humor, but manage to keep the suspense when the story really gets going. Brett and Parker become Those Two Guys as comic relief.
- Medium Blending: Some live performances are intercut with overhead projections of clips of the Nostromo and the derelict ship on an overhead projection, as well as with the scene of Dallas's death which incorporates footage of Alien: Isolation.
- Mythology Gag: A couple of quotes from Aliens are thrown in despite being an adaptation of the first film, such as Brett quoting Hudson "It's game over, man! Game over!" and Ripley saying "Get away from her, you bitch!" as she launches the alien out of the airlock.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Some aspects of the original film had to be changed to accommodate the format of a live stage play. For example, Brett's death is changed to being snatched through a vent by the alien rather than being lifted through the rafters, and Ash's severed head is simply shut off rather than incinerated (for obvious safety reasons).
- Race Lift: The originally black Parker is played by a white actor in this adaptation.
- Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: An unofficial fan-made one, but one actually enjoyed and endorsed by the director of the original and attended by the film's lead star to make an opening speech.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Brett is portrayed here as more of a comic-relief character prone to wisecracks and fourth-wall breaks. Naturally, once he is killed by the Alien, the play takes on a more serious tone.
- Shout-Out: While waiting for Dallas, Kane, and Lambert to return from the derelict, Ripley says "I've got a bad feeling about this" and Ash replies "I wonder where I've heard that before".
- Shown Their Work: The play features a fight between Ripley and Lambert in the med lab: a scene originally only in the Director's cut of the film. It also adds the subplot of their science officer being replaced by Ash two days before the mission, a detail present in the screenplay but not the final film.
- Those Two Guys: The more comedic portrayal of Brett and Parker comes off as this.
