Overview
Synopsis
What happens to pop culture after the fall of human civilization? What about 7 years after the fall? Or even 75 years? Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, endeavors to find out. When nuclear power plants across the country begin to “go up,” a small group of survivors gather in the woods and begin to recount an episode of The Simpsons. Over the course of the play’s three acts and three-quarters of a century timespan, casual storytelling evolves into theater, theater evolves into ritual, and one Simpsons episode evolves into a myth and legend for a post-apocalyptic world.
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Context
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play was originally developed with The Civilians, a theater company dedicated to creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present. Playwright Anne Washburn wanted to explore the question, “What would happen to a pop culture narrative pushed past the fall of civilization?” The Civilians commissioned the project in the summer of 2008, granting Washburn a one-week workshop with members of the company. Unlike a traditional workshop, Washburn gathered
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Act One
The play begins in the woods on a warm night in early October. There is a group of five people situated on the ground and in folding chairs around a campfire, which provides the only source of light. (Being “post-electric,” the play stipulates that all lighting must come from non-electric sources.) One woman, Colleen, sits slightly apart from the rest of the group, whom we first meet mid-conversation as they very intently work to recount the “Cape Feare” episode of The Simpsons
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Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in Mr. Burns, a Post-electric Play.
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