“Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play” is on now at the Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield through Sept. 30. Go to contemporarytheatercompany.com for more information.
TRANSCRIPT:
Luis Hernandez: This is The Public’s Radio. I’m Luis Hernandez. “Mr. Burns, a Post Electric Play” is on now at the Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield, Rhode Island. It’s a 2012 play written by Anne Washburn with music by Michael Friedman. Artscape producer James Baumgartner and I saw the play this weekend, and James is here to talk about it with me. All right, James, this is an odd one. What is it about?
James Baumgartner: Yeah, it is. It’s one of those plays that really stands out just from its description. It takes place in a near future after some sort of apocalyptic event, where now there is no electricity. So in Act I, some of the survivors of this event, they’ve gathered around a campfire, and they’re reminiscing about an old episode of “The Simpsons” called “Cape Feare.” It’s the one where Sideshow Bob is trying to kill Bart Simpson. And the survivors are trying to piece together the episode from their fragmented memory.
Hernandez: And it’s still one of my favorite episodes. And as the play progresses, it’s further in the future, and that episode of “The Simpsons” has been transformed into a play. And then much further in the future, it’s a musical that’s only loosely based on the original episode from 1993. It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it’s enticing, especially if you’re a fan of “The Simpsons.”
Baumgartner: A really great thing about this performance, it’s outside. The first two acts, they’re performed outside on a patio, with the audience in a semicircle around the performers. So the survivors of the event, they’re around a campfire, and the audience is part of that campfire, you really feel like you’re part of the action there.
Hernandez: Yeah, the outdoor setting is really interesting. And I think it is effective, I think it was a lot of fun. You know, you have these really interesting moments. Granted, there’s a trail right next to the stage. So people are walking by, you can hear the traffic. I give the actors a lot of credit – they kept their cool and kept doing their job. But one of the things I really love about contemporary theater is that you can try things, you can be very experimental. And one of the things they did in the show is, they had a lot of moments of stillness and silence which added, of course, to the fact that I can hear the crickets in the river next door. But that doesn’t always work. You can’t pull that off on a big stage. There has to be constant action, but they kind of did it here. And I think it worked. Do you have any favorite moments?
Baumgartner: Yeah, Act II takes place seven years after this apocalyptic event. And now there are touring theater companies that travel around performing old TV episodes as entertainment for all the other survivors. And they also perform commercials as sort of nostalgia and comfort food. One of those commercials is a medley of pop music from the aughts. The actors are going all out during this medley, they’re really having a lot of fun. But there’s an underlying sense of fear because we’re still in that post-electric future. And the members of the traveling theater troupe are competing with other troupes. And if they aren’t successful, they may not survive.
Hernandez: One of the things I enjoyed about this is that it was three acts, and in each act time passed. There was like seven years between Act I and Act II, and then 75 years between that and Act III. And each act changed. By the third act, it’s a musical. I thought it was a lot of fun. Again, going back to the experimentation of contemporary theater, and I think sometimes they pulled it off, sometimes they didn’t.
Baumgartner: Yeah, there was a moment in the first act where they’re trying to remember the “Simpsons” episode, there’s a little bit too much of trying to figure out things. It wasn’t the most exciting dialogue in the play. But overall, a really fun performance. A very clever play, a lot of fun to see the moments connected from one act into the other as the “Simpsons” episode morphed into something very odd. And the young performers were really giving it their all.
Hernandez: Yes, my overall impression I give the actors thumbs up for putting all of themselves into it. The show was strange, but it was fun. You can see Mr. Burns a post electric play at the Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield now through Sept. 30.