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Susannah flood mr burns5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() The survivors perform a ritual of sharing the names of their loved ones who are missing in the hopes that the newcomer has run into them on his trek through the ruined cities of Boston and abandoned Providence. Communications are sketchy too, and a visitor to the campsite might just be greeted with guns and brisk pat down. They can't watch it, because there isn't any electricity following the disaster. Set "near, soon," a small band of survivors of a catastrophic nuclear catastrophe that has taken out most of the world's population, pass the time recreating episodes from The Simpsons television show. Morris, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Susannah Flood & Gibson Frazier. Thus, while past civilizations worshipped the sun, the globe's post-apocalyptic people - in Washburn's fancy - revere a quite different yellow entity.Sam Breslin Wright, Colleen Werthmann, Jennifer R. "The importance of the story changes, so that in the second act" - set seven years after the first - "the characters we see in the first act are now trying to scrupulously reenact the Simpsons story." In the third act, set 75 years further on, "the story has become a much more serious prism for thinking of everything that's happened in the meantime - and everything that happened at that time." "It's as if they turn into a mythology," said Washburn. Burns and power remains off, memories of the old television show gain in importance. All, save Dizzia, star in the Playwrights Horizons production.Īs the years crawl on in Mr. The play's characters are named after the actors who participated in the experiment: Quincy Bernstine, Maria Dizzia, Gibson Frazier, Matt Maher, Jenny Morris, Sam Wright, Colleen Werthmann. In the cartoon, the comically villainous Sideshow Bob - who is bent on murdering Bart Simpson - steps into the Mitchum/DeNiro role. The show is a spoof of "Cape Fear," not only the original 1962 film noir starring Robert Mitchum as an unstoppable killer, but the 1991 Martin Scorcese remake starring Robert DeNiro. Many aficionados regard it as among the greatest Simpsons episodes of all time. "Cape Feare," the second episode of the fifth season, is indeed memorable. "They zeroed in on 'Cape Feare,' because they best remembered it as a group," said Washburn. From the workshop transcript came much of the first act of Mr. With an approach vaguely reminiscent of A Chorus Line - had Michael Bennett's intentions been not to unearth theatre gypsies' hidden pasts, but rather their favorite Looney Tunes episode - she asked the actors to try and reassemble a single half-hour episode of "The Simpsons," using only their memories. Washburn won the grant, and proceeded to congregate a group of Civilians actors in a workshop. "I thought it would be fun, but I thought I'd never do it." Then Steve Cosson, the artistic director of the Off-Broadway collective The Civilians, approached her about applying for a commissioning grant. "I had this idea in my head for years of wanting to take a pop culture narrative and push it past the fall of civilization and see how it would change," said Washburn. Burns's wealth in the series, nuclear power plays a major role in Earth's ruination.)Īs the play hurtles forward nearly a century in time, "The Simpsons" makes the leap from popular television show to beloved, but dimly remembered, cultural totem of a bygone era. When they're not brandishing guns at the approach of every stranger, they entertain and comfort themselves by reconstructing an episode of the animated series. ![]() Burns, Homer Simpson and the other four-fingered folks who populate Matt Groening's iconic "The Simpsons" are not actual characters in the play, but they are fondly remembered by the men and women in the story, who are first seen huddled around a campfire shortly after some sort of cataclysmic societal meltdown has robbed the planet of electricity. Burns, Homer Simpson's obscenely wealthy and gleefully heartless employer. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, beginning Aug. ![]() Place the stress on the first syllable of that adjective, for the name of Washburn's unusual new work, Mr. If the critics take a liking to playwright Anne Washburn's new drama, here's wagering that they'll begin their reviews with one word: "Excellent." ![]()
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