there will be action in the aisles....

May 1, 2019 11:21 AM

Earlier this spring, North Bergen High School in North Bergen, New Jersey, USA put on a stage play adaptation of the movie Alien.

Watch before it gets taken down

posted by the man of twists and turns (21 comments total)

This is awesome.
posted by Mchelly at 11:43 AM on May 1, 2019

So, um, I think we should discuss the bonus situation.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:45 AM on May 1, 2019 [7 favorites]

as for the decision to present as a stage play, I admire its purity.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:48 AM on May 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Also, Sigourney Weaver surprised the cast during an encore performance of the play a few days ago, and addressed the audience afterwards.

The first link made me feel like I had the incipient symptoms of a chestburster.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 11:48 AM on May 1, 2019 [11 favorites]

i know a couple of high school drama teachers who are all "good on them for the quality of the production, but the rights situation here is extremely problematic". While I think in the individual case it's fantastic that Ridley Scott praised the production, I'm wondering how this case is going to push the edges of fair use...
posted by straw at 11:55 AM on May 1, 2019

how did they handle the cat?
posted by thelonius at 11:57 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Speaking as a former theater kid - it should surprise no one that this got done. When theater kids really make up their minds to do a given thing, shit gets good and done. Building sets, designing makeup, finding a way to shimmy out onto a stage in the middle of a dance number and rescue an injured actor, memorizing 80 pages of dialogue - you name it, it's possible. My senior year, our school got a last-minute invitation to compete in the state high school drama festival with only one week's notice and we managed to cast, rehearse, costume, design, and mount an entire one-act play in only five days and ended up bagging a couple of awards.

Determined theater kids are an unstoppable force.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:08 PM on May 1, 2019 [30 favorites]

how did they handle the cat?

Carefully
posted by nubs at 12:16 PM on May 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

This was indeed impressive, if you're looking for a small taste without having to watch the whole thing, here's a good scene.
posted by jeremias at 12:20 PM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

This was indeed impressive, if you're looking for a small taste without having to watch the whole thing, here's a good scene.

Oh my god the dangling Ash head is fucking awesome.
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:38 PM on May 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

Oh man, they took down the main video. While we wait for other people to post new links to it, I will leave you with high school plays by Max Fischer:

Original Play

Reinterpretation of Serpico
posted by jadepearl at 2:44 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Came for the Rushmore reference, was not disappointed.

The chestburster scene is pretty darned impressive. I skipped ahead to it knowing full well what was going to happen, and still jumped. I love that these kids just went for broke and did it. And bless that teacher, too.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:53 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Similarly, a bunch of bus drivers from Dorset (in the UK) staged Alien (with very similar production values) and even did a one night performance in the west end.

It doesn't seem to have made much of an impact on YouTube, but there is a trailer for a documentary that appears to be a work-in-progress.
posted by Luddite at 3:14 PM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Jimmy Carr: "So it's a tradition for the Big Fat Quiz of the year for the children of Mitchell Brook Primary School to produce one of their unusual plays for us. What I want you to do is have a look at this, and tell us what they're reenacting ..."
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:39 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

So, um, I think we should discuss the bonus situation.


Right.
posted by ikahime at 8:22 PM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

So first-born and second-born are now drama kids both of them, and the youngest one wants desperately to have a go as well (he's still too young). After a couple of years behind the scenes I can only give an enormous thumbs-up to everyone involved for the amount of work this was, and how well they pulled it off!
posted by Harald74 at 1:24 AM on May 2, 2019

I feel that this shows that the current copyright model is broken. I mean, the movie is 40 years old, it's made millions and launched careers and is an inextricable part of our culture by now. But still it apparently needs the law to strike down anyone doing something derivative of it or recreating it in a different medium. I think it should have been free by now, having enjoyed the protection of the law for more than a generation.
posted by Harald74 at 1:31 AM on May 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is so awesome.
posted by Kemma80 at 5:00 AM on May 2, 2019

I'd be willing to bet that we'll see a couple (or maybe even more than a couple) of these students in some really impressive mainstream capacity (or indie, just making a splash somewhere) in a few years. At least, I hope so!
posted by xingcat at 6:37 AM on May 2, 2019

Get this in Samuel French ASAP.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:56 AM on May 2, 2019

This is the best thing I've watched in months and months or years. BEST OF THE WEB. Metafilter, I'm proud of you.
posted by mississippi at 4:32 PM on May 2, 2019 [1 favorite]