EDITOR MICHELLE GAMAGE THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012 4 Zombie thriller a yawntest The Virtual Stage’s latest play, written and directed by Andy Thompson, fails to frighten or entertain By KEVIN HAMPSON around Vancouver by the living dead, while desperately seeking a cure for a plague turning citizens into zombies and getting drenched by rain, ultimately fails to thrill. The Zombie Syndrome is a new in- teractive play where an audience of around 10 become the protagonists of the show by following their smart- phones and several odd-ball charac- ters, in a quest to find the laboratory of zany scientist, Dr. Mosenski. There they must nab the antidote to the syn- drome that’s turning Vancouverites into walking corpses. The play’s location is kept from the audience until a day or two before the show, when audience members receive a call from a “sergeant” who informs them of the upcoming date. The ad-libbed banter between actor and audience is the best thing about the show. It creates an edge, as no one knows exactly whats going to happen - not even the actors. The downside is that the audience spends most of the show trekking around outside in the seasonal rain looking for clues. Each character ap- pears briefly before sending the audi- ence on their way, leaving little oppor- tunity for character development. In terms of story, The Zombie Syn- drome is a preachy morality play about the evil of private corporations and the good of public health care. Dr. Mosens- ki “demanded his work be provided to the public free of charge,” explains the doctor’s nephew. But he was thwarted by the play’s real villains: “scum-suck- ing corporate pigs... driven only by profit.” The zombies are as superficial as the other characters, despite their poten- tial for symbolism. If they had repre- sented a real-life horror, such as drug addiction or AIDS, they would have been scarier. Instead we learn that the pitiable corpses are merely victims of greedy pharmaceutical companies. The story fails to get off the ground and even the height of the action feels anti-climactic. The plot is weak, as a result of the absence of any strong characters with conflict, and fails to create dramatic tension. Still, the show does deliver some amusing theatre. The Zombie Syn- drome runs until Oct. 31, with tickets selling for $25. Ae: that involves getting chased Vill Bit 20 JOROMmE an interactive thealre adventure on the streets of Vancouver “Virtual stage Celebrate craft- > RICHARD HODGES photo Gina Ciccone, 23, drinks a Blue Buck by the Philip brewing company at The Roxy open mic night on Tuesday. Blue Buck is a deep amber coloured beer with a crisp finish and a delicate hop aroma. The Blue Buck is a legendary animal rumoured to grant travellers, who are lucky enough to catch a glimpse, safe travels and good fortune. Vancouver draught October is B.C.’s craft beer month, and brewers are marking the event with seasonal flavours ie By RICHARD HODGES or the second straight October, British Columbia is celebrating craft beer month. The expanded celebration will see more than 112 casks tapped around a city that is in- creasingly committing to home-brewed suds. B.C. beer drinkers spent $111.5 mil- lion on microbrews in 2011, a sharp in- crease from $56 million in 2007, accord- ing to statistics from the Liquor Distribution Branch. It’s enough to see the market share of craft beer in the province hop to 12 per cent. It’s a wave Steamworks brewery president Walter Cosman and his part- ner, former Langara student Marc Rob- erts, are hoping to ride as they recently introduced their products into private and public liquor stores. “People love buying quality products and supporting local companies and we’re both those things,” Cosman said. “But it’s a tough market to crack and there’s a lot of elements at play.” Cosman added that the company has spent several million dollars in their ef- forts to expand past the local Gastown market. Steamworks is also one of numerous local breweries offering a seasonal pumpkin beer this month, a limited- time ale that the major breweries can’t offer. Graham With of Parallel 49 Brewing Company recently took home third prize in the specialty category of the 2012 B.C. Beer Awards held this past Fri- day with his ode to the fall vegetable. “The Schadenfreude Pumpkin Okto- berfest is something we can do as a mi- crobrew,” With said. “We have flexibili- ty in our brewing and we can have fun with that.” The appeal of craft brews isn’t lost on Langara students. Second-year busi- ness student Joel Coakley says that he doesn’t mind paying a bit extra for a bet- ter beer. His current favourite six-pack is the Philip brewing company’s “Blue Buck.” “Tm not a huge drinker,” Coakley said. “I drink to celebrate and you have to get something special when you’re celebrating.” Meanwhile fine arts student Alex Burr enjoys the variety offered by lim- ited runs of microbrews. “They’re fun and they always have different stuff to try,” said Burr. rews Schadenfreude, a pumpkin logger, from Parallel 49 brewing company Pumpkineater, a pumpkin ale, from Howe Sound brew- ing company Back Hand of God, a stout, from Crannog Ales Stumpy, a coffee porter, from R&B brewing company Farmhand, a saison, from Driftwood brewery Blood Alley Bitter, an extra special bitter, from Russell Brewmaster Tables turn in teacher art exibit Langara fine arts instruc- tors show off their artistic abilities in an “inspiring” show in the faculty lounge By JANA MINOR tique their instructors’ work at the Fine Arts Faculty Art Show. The show, in its second year, is a rare opportunity for instructors to show- case their work. The show runs from Oct. 11 to Oct. 25 and is free of charge. Students are in- vited to browse the art in the faculty lounge, room A194. “Some are really inspiring,” said first year fine arts student Georgia Wil- liams of the pieces at the Oct. 11 open- ing in the faculty lounge. The show in- cludes paintings, drawings, sculptures, pottery and multimedia installations. “It gives you a new perspective on your teachers,” said Christian Vistan, another fine arts student. The show has no formal theme but a recurring motif is the depiction of many iconic figures. Luke Blackstone’s mechanical sculp- ture features Leonardo da Vinci and Suzi Webster’s pop art print fuses Mar- ilyn Monroe with Che Guevara. Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Ernest Hemingway and Charles Darwin all cameo in Jake Hill’s multimedia sculp- ture, Beards of Better Men. Yet not-so-famous people such as Brian McGibney’s bronze sailboat sculpture have inspired other works. The sculpture is inspired by McGib- ney’s memories of sailing with his fa- ther, who cannot sail anymore due to illness, on OKanagan Lake. “Tlove sailing,” said McGibney. The small sculpture weighs nine ki- lograms and took 100 hours to make. It’s titled Close Hauled, a nautical term describing a boat sailing as directly into the wind as possible without cap- sizing, or tipping over. Si: have the chance to cri- JANA MINOR photos Top to bottom: Two women ad- mire Helena Wadsley’s painting, Left Behind; Giselle Quero looks at instructor Suzi Webster’s print Marilyn Che 2/s; Art student’s view instructor Stephanie Aitken’s oil painting on linen.