Zombies

How to Play

Zombies is a variant of Replay at Bernie’s/Weekend at Bernie’s for three or four players. Get a location or situation from the audience and improvise a short scene with clear characters and memorable actions.

After the first scene, the audience chooses one player to eliminate. Replay the scene, but the eliminated player now moves around the stage and acts like a zombie. The remaining players try to make the zombie perform their previous role, guiding them through the original actions and supplying their character's dialogue.

After each replay, eliminate another player, who also becomes a zombie. Earlier zombies continue roaming and behaving like zombies during subsequent replays. Keep attempting to recreate the original scene as the number of zombies increases. In the final replay, the last remaining player tries to perform their own role while getting all the zombies to perform theirs. End after this final replay.

Unlike the passive bodies in Replay at Bernie’s, zombies move and act independently. The challenge is to bring them back into their previous roles while continuing the scene.

Examples

In the original scene, a customer orders a cake, a baker hands it over, and an assistant lights the candles. On the first replay, the eliminated baker shuffles away from the counter, reaching toward the customer. The customer tries to guide the baker's hands through handing over the imaginary cake while supplying the baker's original line.

If the assistant becomes a zombie next, the customer must also get them back to the candles while keeping the baker involved and repeating their own part.

Player Tips

• Establish a simple scene that everyone can remember and repeat.
• Zombies should keep moving and acting like zombies while allowing partners opportunities to redirect them into the scene.
• Active players should keep the original story recognizable as they manage the wandering characters.
• Agree on physical contact beforehand. Zombies support their own weight, and players guide rather than restrain or drag one another.

Host Tips

• Explain that eliminated players become moving zombies and remain in every replay.
• Keep the original scene short enough to replay two or three times.
• Make each elimination clear and end once the final player has attempted the scene with all the zombies.