Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play

Last updated

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play poster.jpg
The poster for the original off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons
Written by Anne Washburn
Date premieredMay 2012
Place premiered Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.
Genre Black comedy

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (stylized Mr. Burns, a post-electric play) is an American black comedy play written by Anne Washburn with music by Michael Friedman. The play depicts the evolution of the story from the Simpsons episode "Cape Feare" in the decades after an apocalyptic event.

Contents

It premiered in May 2012 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., and ran from August through October 2013 at Playwrights Horizons in New York City, commissioned and developed with the New York theater company The Civilians. It received polarized reviews and was nominated for a 2014 Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play.

It was produced at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2014 by director Robert Icke, and in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia in 2017 by director Imara Savage. The UK regional premiere was produced at Derby Theatre in 2023 by director Omar Khan.

Plot

Shortly after an unspecified apocalypse, six survivors gather at a campfire. To distract themselves from mourning, they attempt to recount the episode "Cape Feare" of the TV show The Simpsons , as well as several other pieces of media.

Seven years later, the group has formed a travelling theatre company that specializes in performing Simpsons episodes. Live theatre is a major entertainment form in the new society, with troupes fiercely competing to replicate pre-apocalyptic stories. Despite this goal, the group's rendition of Cape Feare differs from the real episode in many small ways. During a rehearsal, the group is attacked by armed robbers, with their fates unknown.

75 years after that, Cape Feare is performed as a musical in a theater dedicated to The Simpsons. The characters, plot and morals have changed into more serious and epic forms. For example, Mr. Burns has been combined with Sideshow Bob (the actual Cape Feare villain) and is now a supernatural avatar of death and destruction.

In the musical's story, Burns destroys Springfield by sabotaging the nuclear power plant. The Simpsons flee from the catastrophe onto a houseboat. Burns and his demonic henchmen Itchy & Scratchy sneak onto the boat and untie the mooring ropes, then begin killing the Simpsons one by one. Bart, the last survivor, almost surrenders out of despair. However, he receives encouragement from the ghosts of his family and duels Burns in a swordfight. Burns almost wins, but when the boat enters violent rapids, he's flung onto Bart's sword and dies. As Bart sings a finale song about hope for the future, the stage is lit up by bicycle-powered electric lights— the first appearance of electricity in the play. [1]

History

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play was written by Anne Washburn with a score composed by Michael Friedman. [2] [3] For a long time, Washburn had been exploring what it would be like "to take a TV show and push it past the apocalypse and see what happened to it" and while she originally considered Friends , Cheers , and M*A*S*H , she ultimately settled on The Simpsons. [4]

Working with The Civilians theater company, who had commissioned the play, Washburn held a workshop for a week in 2008 with actors Matthew Maher, Maria Dizzia, and Jennifer R. Morris to see how much of any episode of The Simpsons they could remember. [3] [4] Maher knew The Simpsons well and the group decided on the 1993 episode "Cape Feare", based on the 1991 film Cape Fear , itself a remake of an eponymous 1962 film which is based on the 1957 novel The Executioners . [3] [5] He helped Dizzia and Morris remember the episode, then the two of them went on to perform it for an audience without his help; Washburn subsequently utilized recordings of this process in writing her play's first act. [3]

Productions

2012: Washington, D.C.

The play had its world premiere in May 2012 at Washington, D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. It was commissioned by The Civilians and developed in partnership with them, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons. [6] [3] [7] It was directed by Steve Cosson who got confirmation from several lawyers that the play fell under the umbrella of fair use. [3]

2013: New York City

Cosson also directed the New York City production at Playwrights Horizons that premiered on September 15, 2013. [2] Maher and Morris, who had not appeared in the Woolly Mammoth production, returned for the New York staging. [2] [3] At Playwrights, the show ran until October 20, 2013. [8] Samuel French, Inc. published the show's script and licenses productions of the show. [6]

U.S. casts

Character(s)Original off-Broadway cast [2] Original D.C. cast [9]
Quincy, Businesswoman, Bart 2 Quincy Tyler Bernstine Erika Rose [10]
Susannah, Lisa 1, Second F.B.I. Agent, Itchy Susannah FloodJenna Sokolowski
Gibson, Loving Husband, Sideshow Bob, Homer 2Gibson FrazierChris Genebach
Matt, Homer 1, Scratchy Matthew Maher Steve Rosen
Nedra, Edna Krabappel Nedra McClyde
Jenny, Marge Jennifer R. MorrisKimberly Gilbert
Colleen, First F.B.I. Agent, Lisa 2Colleen WerthmannAmy McWilliams
Sam, Bart 1, Mr. Burns Sam Breslin WrightJames Sugg

2014: London

Washburn continued to revise the play for its European premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London in Spring 2014, and a new draft was published by Oberon Books. It was directed by Robert Icke, who commissioned Orlando Gough to compose a new a cappella score for the third act. The London production was visually and emotionally darker than the New York one, especially in its third act which resembled Greek tragedy as much as The Simpsons. [11]

It provoked an extremely divided reaction from British critics; ratings ranged from one to five stars. [12]

Character(s)Original London cast [13]
Maria, Lisa Annabel Scholey
Gibson, ItchyBrandon Grace
Matt, Homer Noah Marullo
Quincy, Marge Wunmi Mosaku
Colleen, Bart Jenna Russell
Sam, Mr BurnsDan Wolff
NedraAdey Grummet
Jenny, ScratchyJustine Mitchell

2017: Australia

A co-production between Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre and the State Theatre Company South Australia [14] saw the play performed at Space Theatre in the Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, in April–May 2017 [15] and at the Belvoir in May–June 2017. [16]

Mitchell Butel took the roles of Mr Burns and Gibson, while Paula Arundell, Esther Hannaford, Jude Henshall, Brent Hill, Ezra Juanta, and Jacqy Phillips making up the rest of the cast. The production was directed by Imara Savage. The play was mostly met with good reviews [17] [18] and Butel won a Helpmann Award for his performance. [19]

Reception

The New York Times ranked Mr. Burns: a post-electric play at #4 on its list "The Great Work Continues: The 25 Best American Plays Since Angels in America ." Critic Laura Collins-Hughes wrote, "Not everyone loves this play; not everyone’s meant to. But for the rest of us, it’s the kind of bold, inventive show that sends you staggering out onto the street afterward, stunned and exhilarated, not sure quite what you’ve just experienced because you’ve never seen its like before." [20]

In Time , Richard Zoglin characterized the reaction to the show as receiving "some rave reviews, a few equally passionate dissents and sellout crowds." [21] Ben Brantley of The New York Times compared Mr. Burns to Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th-century book The Decameron in which a group of Italian youths have fled the Black Death to a villa where they begin to exchange stories. [2] "At the end of Steve Cosson's vertiginous production, which opened on Sunday night at Playwrights Horizons, you’re likely to feel both exhausted and exhilarated from all the layers of time and thought you've traveled through", wrote Brantley. [2] Reviewing for Vulture , Scott Brown found "Cape Feare" to be "a perfect palimpsest" and commended the ending musical number as "equal parts Brecht and Bart, Homer and the other Homer". [22]

In his otherwise positive review, Brown noted that the play's "flabby middle act could use some tightening, to better dramatize Washburn’s talky deepthink." [22] Marilyn Stasio wrote for Variety that the "piece loses sight of its humanity with an overproduced pop-rap-operetta in the underplotted second act". [23] The Huffington Post 's David Finkle felt that the play "could be contained in a 15-minute skit--if not quite a 140-character tweet" and that Washburn "stretches and stretches it through [its] three parts". [24]

The play is mentioned in the 2015 The Simpsons episode "Let's Go Fly a Coot" as part of a list of recent post-apocalyptic films (despite the fact that it is not a film). In writer Mike Reiss's memoir about writing for the show, Springfield Confidential , he describes his disappointment with the play, saying that both it and the playwright failed because the play was what The Simpsons itself never was, "grim, pretentious and dull." [25]

Awards

YearAwardSubjectResultReference
2014 Drama League Award Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway PlayNominated [8]

Analysis

Julie Grossman examined Mr. Burns as an instance of multilayered adaptation. She wrote that the show "challenges audiences to embrace the imaginative (if strange and alienating) scions, or adaptations, of cultural matter." [26] In reference to characters in the play's second act bargaining for rights to and lines from other Simpsons episodes, she noted "That permissions and copyright have survived the apocalypse brings out the absurdity of owning the rights to artistic production and dialogue and the persistence of capitalism." [27] Grossman differentiated Mr. Burns from Emily St. John Mandel's 2014 novel Station Eleven , which also examines storytelling in a postapocalyptic setting, in the types of catalysts for their respective apocalypse: a naturally occurring flu outbreak in Station Eleven versus an unnatural and greed-driven nuclear collapse in Mr. Burns. [28] "Although the play's postmodern mash-up of television, film, and theater is highly entertaining, its powerful ethics resides in seeing capitalism and consumerism (symbolized by the greedy Simpsons character Mr. Burns) as the causes of civilization's decay." [29]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cape Fear</i> (1991 film) Psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese

Cape Fear is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same title, which was based on the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. The film stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker, and Juliette Lewis. Robert Mitchum has a small role in the film, while Gregory Peck and Martin Balsam make cameo appearances, all three having starred in the original film.

"Cape Feare" is the second episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993. The episode features guest star Kelsey Grammer in his third major appearance as Sideshow Bob, who attempts to kill Bart Simpson again after getting out of jail, spoofing the 1962 film Cape Fear and its 1991 remake. Both films are based on John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel The Executioners and allude to other horror films such as Psycho.

"Homer Goes to College" is the third episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 14, 1993. In the episode, Homer causes a nuclear meltdown during a plant inspection and is required to study nuclear physics at college. When Homer neglects his studies, the college dean has three nerds tutor him. Homer enlists the nerds' help in playing a prank on a rival college, leading to their expulsion. Homer invites them to live with the Simpsons, who soon grow tired of their new housemates.

Craig Wright is a playwright, television producer and writer. He is known for writing for shows including Six Feet Under and Lost and creating the television series Dirty Sexy Money and Greenleaf. He also was the screenwriter for the movie Mr. Peabody & Sherman, released March 7, 2014.

Constance Lalage "Lally" Katz is an American and Australian dramatist writing for theater, film, and television. She now resides in Los Angeles.

Nicky Silver is an American playwright. Formerly of Philadelphia, he resides in London. Many of his plays have been produced off-Broadway, and also at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 5 Season of television series

The fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993, and May 19, 1994. The showrunner for the fifth production season was David Mirkin who executive produced 20 episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced the remaining two, which were both hold overs that were produced for the previous season. The season contains some of the series' most acclaimed and popular episodes, including "Cape Feare", "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", "Homer Goes to College", "Deep Space Homer", and "Rosebud". It also includes the 100th episode, "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Program as well as an Environmental Media Award and a Genesis Award. The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 21, 2004, Region 2 on March 21, 2005, and Region 4 on March 23, 2005.

Tommy Murphy is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, adaptor and director. He created and was head writer for the 2022 TV series Significant Others. He is best known for his stage and screen adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man. His most recent plays are a stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, Mark Colvin's Kidney and Packer & Sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company</span> Non-profit theatre company in Washington, D.C.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company located at 641 D Street NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1980, it produces new plays which it believes to be edgy, challenging, and thought-provoking. Performances are in a 265-seat courtyard-style theater.

David Adjmi is an American playwright who is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the inaugural Steinberg Playwright Award, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Prize for Drama.In 2020, he released a memoir about his life growing up in Brooklyn, titled Lot Six.His plays include Stunning (2008) and Stereophonic (2023).

The Civilians is an investigative theatre company in New York City founded in 2002 by Artistic Director, Steve Cosson. The Civilians artists pursue their inquiries using interviews, community residencies, research, and other methods. Working with a combination of journalism and art, the Civilians creates theatrical events that seek to promote inquisitions of current issues. According to Variety Magazine, The Civilians "travels far and wide researching a piece around a given subject, conducting interviews and comparing notes along the way, sometimes for years."

John Michael Friedman was an American composer and lyricist. He was a Founding Associate Artist of theater company The Civilians.

Steven Cosson is a writer and director specializing in the creation of new theater work inspired by real life. He is the founding Artistic Director of the New York-based investigative theater company The Civilians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Washburn</span> American playwright

Anne Washburn is an American playwright.

Mitchell Patrick Butel is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He has been the artistic director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia since March 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Voices Theater Festival (Washington D.C.)</span>

In the fall of 2015, the Washington, D.C. region's professional theaters combined to produce the Women's Voices Theater Festival. The festival consisted of over 50 companies each presenting a world premiere production of a work by one or more female playwrights. The festival claimed to be "the largest collaboration of theater companies working simultaneously to produce original works by female writers in history". The Coordinating Producers of the Women's Voices Theater Festival were Nan Barnett of the National New Play Network (NNPN) and former NNPN General Manager Jojo Ruf. The honorary committee supporting the festival was chaired by first lady Michelle Obama and included actors Allison Janney and Tea Leoni and playwrights Beth Henley, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lynn Nottage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert O'Hara</span> American playwright

Robert O'Hara is an American playwright and director. He has written Insurrection: Holding History and Bootycandy. Insurrection is a time traveling play exploring racial and sexual identity. Bootycandy is a series of comedic scenes primarily following the character of Sutter, a gay African American man growing from adolescence to manhood. It won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama. O’Hara was nominated for the 2020 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for his contribution to Slave Play.

Rebecca Taichman is an American theatre director. In 2017, she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Indecent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Manuela Goyanes</span>

Maria Manuela Goyanes is a first-generation Latina theatre maker, chiefly known for her work at The Public Theatre in New York City, as well as her September 2018 appointment as the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C.

Saheem Ali is a Kenyan theatre director. He is Associate Artistic Director at The Public Theater in New York City.

References

  1. ↑ Washburn, Anne (2012). Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. Samuel French.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brantley, Ben (15 September 2013). "Stand Up, Survivors; Homer Is With You". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Grode, Eric (31 May 2012). "'The Simpsons' as a Text for the Ages". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Del Signore, John (27 September 2013). "Excellent: Playwright Anne Washburn Talks Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play". Gothamist . Gothamist LLC. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Weisfeld, Miriam (2012). "Essential Narrative" (PDF). Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. p. 4. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Mr. Burns, a post-electric play". Samuel French. Samuel French, Inc. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "Mr Burns, a Post-Electric Play". Woolly Mammoth. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Mr. Burns, a post-electric play". Lortel Archives . Lucille Lortel Foundation. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  9. ↑ Gilbert, Sophie (5 June 2012). "Theater Review: "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play" at Woolly Mammoth". Washingtonian . Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Gunther, Amanda (5 June 2012). "'Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play' at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Amanda Gunther". DC Metro Theater Arts. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  11. ↑ "Mr Burns". Time Out London. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  12. ↑ "Mr Burns divides the critics". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  13. ↑ "Mr Burns". Almeida Theatre. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  14. ↑ Washburn, Anne (29 September 2021). "Mr Burns". Belvoir St Theatre. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  15. ↑ Dexter, John (27 April 2017). "Review: Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play". The Adelaide Review. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  16. ↑ McPherson, Angus (23 February 2019). "Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Belvoir & State Theatre Company South Australia)". Limelight. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  17. ↑ Lenny, Barry (5 October 2022). "Review: Mr. Burns – A Post-Electric Play at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre". Broadway World. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  18. ↑ Grubel, Maxine (13 May 2017). "Mr Burns". Stage Whispers. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  19. ↑ Marsh, Walter (17 December 2018). "New State Theatre Company artistic director revealed". The Adelaide Review . Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  20. ↑ "The Great Work Continues: The 25 Best American Plays Since 'Angels in America'". The New York Times. 31 May 2018.
  21. ↑ Zoglin, Richard (25 September 2013). "When The Simpsons Rules the World: Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play". Time . Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  22. 1 2 Brown, Scott (17 September 2013). "Apocalypse? D'oh! Scott Brown Reviews Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play". Vulture . Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  23. ↑ Stasio, Marilyn (16 September 2013). "Off Broadway Review: 'Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play'". Variety . Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  24. ↑ Finkle, David (16 September 2013). "First Nighter: Anne Washburn's "Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play" Does Go On and On and..." The Huffington Post . Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  25. ↑ Reiss, Mike; Klickstein, Mathew (2018). Springfield confidential: jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime writing for the Simpsons. New York City: Dey Street Books. p. 94. ISBN   978-0062748034.
  26. ↑ Grossman 2015, p. 190.
  27. ↑ Grossman 2015, p. 184.
  28. ↑ Grossman 2015, p. 181.
  29. ↑ Grossman 2015, pp. 181–182.

Cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.