Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn is a play in three acts. The first act begins after an apocalyptic event, leaving survivors to fend for themselves without electricity or the comforts of everyday life. Surrounded by a campfire, a small group of strangers, thrown together by chance with nothing but time on their hands, decides to recount from memory the episode “Cape Feare” from The Simpsons as a diversion from the horrors they’ve recently experienced. The second act takes place 7 years later. These same characters have formed an amateur acting company who tour and perform The Simpsons episodes for other survivors around the country. No longer just an entertaining distraction, The Simpsons becomes the key to their survival- a good performance means they’ll eat that night. The third act takes place 75 years later. The Simpsons characters are elevated to mythic proportions and a grand performance of the episode, “Cape Feare” is entirely sung with the bravado of an operatic tragedy performed by seasoned players.
In her notes on Mr. Burns, playwright Washburn discusses her desire to examine “what would happen to a pop culture narrative pushed past the fall of civilization." With The Simpsons as her muse, Washburn illustrates the power of storytelling. She says, “Since all stories, no matter how fanciful, are in some way constructed from our experiences, real or imagined, all storytelling is a remaking of our past in order to create our future” (qtd in Actsocialmedia). In the post-apocalyptic world of Mr. Burns, characters turn to storytelling for their salvation. And, what better subject for them to explore than that of The Simpsons “Cape Feare” episode?! The Simpsons has been around since 1989, long before today's college students were born, and its ability to embody both lowbrow and highbrow humor surely helps explain its longevity. There is something for everyone in the show, and we can all see a little of ourselves in the archetypal characters that populate Springfield. The characters in Mr. Burns not only find solace in trying to recapture the essence of “Cape Feare”, but their very life depends upon it. Journalist Nirmala Nataraj commented, “Mr. Burns has accordingly been lauded as a celebration of the human instinct to tell stories—and a reminder of how deeply this instinct is tied to our endurance as a species” (Actsocialmedia). The “Cape Feare” episode was the catalyst to examine the necessity of storytelling to great effect and served as the perfect foil for Washburn to explore the grey area of artistic ownership.
The Simpsons is a show that’s been around for so long, that most have at least heard of it and with pop culture references littered throughout the “Cape Feare” episode, there is much on offer to appeal to our mainstream consciousness. Washburn ironically borrows Matt Groening’s iconic characters to explore plagiarism, copyright infringement, and poetic license, all themes in the play. Working on this show was a major “life imitating art” experience. While the characters in Act II discuss buying bits of dialogue from other survivors who remember The Simpsons episodes, the producer and I were working with copyright lawyers to see if we could purchase the rights to Britney Spears’ Toxic for the actors to perform in the show. While Ms. Washburn requests the use of that song in Act II, and the melody of Toxic is used in Act III with different lyrics, we did not automatically acquire the rights to the song when we purchased the rights to perform Mr. Burns. We also had to get approval for our scenic design from Universal Studios to be sure that our design did not resemble the setting or drawing style of The Simpsons. And there could be no visual reference to any The Simpsons character on the programs or marketing materials. These are just a few instances where I as director had to work with the producer to make sure that we had the artistic rights to perform all that Ms. Washburn intended for her play.
Meanwhile the characters on stage speak about how competing acting troupes performing The Simpsons episodes are “stealing” lines from them. It felt like a cruel joke at the time, but I now realize how Washburn was illustrating the difficulties in pinpointing artistic ownership and how so much is borrowed, stolen, and imitated. While it is clear that Washburn uses The Simpsons as a backdrop to create a common ground for her audience and is in no way copying or imitating that work, she demonstrates just how difficult it can be to build on other artists work to create something new with your own art. Directing and choreographing Mr. Burns was a wonderful opportunity to explore these complexities. As a theatre maker, I have spent far too much time hand wringing over the quest to be "original" in my work, and it was freeing to work with a script that did such an amazing job of showing me how to utilize a variety of influences and weave them into an innovative narrative.
Creating the Mr. Burns Aesthetic
I asked Mr. Burns costumes designer, Beth Skinner, to incorporate the classical stylings of the Greek chorus, to seek inspiration from Martha Graham’s Lamentation costume, and to use the golden hue of The Simpsons family in her color palette. Layering these ideas led to her innovative costume design and the creation of a captivating and specific visual. With Francois Delsarte’s gestures as inspiration, I composed movement in Act III to embody the grandeur of the heightened theatrical moment. Lighting Design by Melissa Shafer and Scenic Design by Zach Olsen.
Click below to see student analysis of the play under the instruction of Dr. Katherine Weiss:
Photo Credit: ETSU Photographic Services
Works Cited:
Actsocialmedia. “Survival of the Fittest Stories: An Interview with Playwright Anne Washburn.” Survival of the Fittest Stories: An Interview with Playwright Anne Washburn, Blogger, 16 Mar. 2017, blog.act-sf.org/2015/02/survival-of-fittest-stories-interview.html.
Washburn, Anne. Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play. Oberon Books, 2016.