Halloween taster in Laois Zombies take to Portlaoise stage

After haunting audiences in Dublin and Cork, the multi-award-winning play The Zombie Monologues rises again for one night only in Laois as part of the LASTA Festival 2025.

The Zombie show team promise a darkly comic, heart-filled horror that has humour, humanity, and unexpected warmth at the Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise on Friday night, October 17.

The show's writer and director is Rachel Thornton. She sets the scene for Leinster Express / Laois Live readers.

"The year is 2020. Or maybe it’s 2021; nobody can tell anymore. As the world falls into another lockdown, Colm, a takeaway driver and budding filmmaker, stumbles upon a house of zombies on the fringes of Castlebar. The undead roommates find themselves at the whims of his perpetual positivity as Colm becomes determined to show them, and the world, the bright side of death. What unfolds is a darkly comic tale of why we keep rising from our graves over and over again. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

From Co Kildare, Rachel is the founder of Trip Hazard Theatre.

"Trip Hazard Theatre’s The Zombie Monologues is a whimsical ensemble horror-comedy, and a feast for the brains and the soul," she says.

Rachel adds that the show was first performed at The Irish Society Drama Festival 2024, winning six awards, including "Best Original Writing" and "Best Overall Production". The production features original music by Joshua McNutt.

The LASTA Festival is a nationwide arts festival curated by young people for young people, presented by the NASCA Network of Arts Centres. The 2025 edition brings together bold new voices in theatre, music, film, and visual art, highlighting the next generation of Irish creative talent under this year’s theme, ‘Home’.

The curtain goes up on The Zombie Monologues Friday, at 8pm. Tickets are vailable now via www.dunamaise.ie

For more information, please visit www.thezombiemonologues.com

Rachel Thornton started writing at a very young age and won several national writing and film awards in her youth. As a teenager, she was a member of the Kildare Youth Theatre and her love of writing for theatre was encouraged and facilitated at Fighting Words in Dublin.

Rachel’s work has been showcased on the main and Peacock stages of The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Moat Theatre and The Everyman, Cork. Her writing has been featured in The Irish Times, on RTÉ2, and she has presented as a roving reporter for 'Colm & Lucy In The Morning' on Classic Hits FM.

In 2019, Rachel became the first person to receive a UCD Ad Astra Scholarship for Performing Arts as a playwright/director. Upon graduating with a BA in Drama & Film Studies, Rachel was awarded a scholarship under which she studied MA Theatre Practice with UCD and the Gaiety School of Acting.

She was an active member of DramSoc in UCD, writing and directing her own work and acting in several other productions. In three consecutive years 2022-2024 she won the Best Original Script at the Irish Student Drama Awards with “The Last Wolf In Ireland”, “Magical Girls” and “Zombie Monologues” and these productions won multiple other awards including ‘Best Overall Production in 2024’.

“The Last Wolf In Ireland” had a very successful run in the Smock Alley Theatre in March 2025, received widespread positive reviews and earned 4.5 stars from The Reviews Hub.