Sumith Prasad
Michael Sarnoski’s apocalyptic horror film ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ begins with Sam going to a puppet show in Zhi Peng Theater, a puppet theater in New York City’s Chinatown. When an enormous group of alien creatures invades Earth, she seeks refuge in the establishment with her caretaker, Reuben. They are joined by several other spectators of the show, including Henri. Together, the audience members try their best to hide from the aliens by not making any noise. Zhi Peng is a captivating puppet theater that displays Chinatown’s appeal in real life. However, viewers of the movie cannot visit the establishment in reality!
Zhi Peng Theater Does Not Really Exist
Zhi Peng is a fictional theater conceived by Michael Sarnoski to integrate the appeal of real-life New York City to ‘A Quiet Place: Day One.’ The filmmaker wanted the film’s backdrop to represent the ambiance of NYC authentically. To make the same happen, he collaborated with production designer Simon Bowles, who built sets of Chinatown, Harlem, the Lower East Side, and the Upper East Side, primarily in Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, for the movie’s production. Zhi Peng Theater is part of the Chinatown set Simon made for the earlier portions of the project.
To build the sets that include Zhi Peng Theater, Simon and her team were inspired by Mott Street, which is regarded as Chinatown’s “Main Street.” “We wanted to represent each of New York’s neighborhoods honestly and find the heart of each neighborhood. For Chinatown, we chose Mott Street and spent a lot of time hanging out there,” the production designer told the Motion Picture Association. However, the street does not have a theater named Zhi Peng in real life. However, New York City has a long history of hosting and promoting Chinese theater. Organizations like Chinese Theatre Works (CTW) conduct performances throughout the year in venues such as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Sarnoski must have created the puppet show in Zhi Peng to capture the essence of the Chinese culture present in Chinatown. Furthermore, a theater is one of the few settings that makes sense within the narrative of the film for a large group of people to hide. This particular detail is significant since Sam meets Henri and his wife, Zena, during the puppet show, only for them to hide together when the aliens invade the city. The meeting turns out to be critical toward the end of the movie as Henri saves her cat, Frodo, and Eric while she distracts a group of alien creatures.
Read More: A Quiet Place: Is Loetta’s Jazz Club a Real Jazz Club in Harlem?
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