There’s been quite a buzz surrounding “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” with tickets for its limited run getting scarcer by the minute.
Well, get in line ASAP, because this bizarre, funny, bleak, wonderful show is even better than its hype.
Part of the appeal has to do with Anne Washburn’s setting the action in a post-apocalyptic future full of pop-culture references — most prominently the classic 1993 “Simpsons” episode “Cape Feare.”
But the production, inventively directed by the Civilians’ Steve Cosson, is a lot more than an attempt to lure younger crowds with wink-wink quotes.
The show begins with six people huddled around a campfire. They’ve recently survived a disaster, possibly nuclear, that’s destroyed America and its electrical grid.
To pass the time, they retell the story of Bart and his maniacal pursuer in “Cape Feare.” But memory is unreliable, and already the survivors disagree about the plot and the punch lines.
Seven years pass, and our gang is now putting on elaborate re-enactments of “The Simpsons.”
During rehearsal, Gibson (Gibson Frazier) makes a case for keeping “Springfield Files” in the repertoire: “People remember loving that episode,” he argues.
“In the original,” Colleen (Colleen Werthmann) counters. “Our version sucks.”
They even make up commercials that evoke the things they once took for granted and are now unthinkable luxuries: a hot bath, a cold soda.
Though the play hangs on “The Simpsons,” it isn’t for kids. There are plenty of surrealistically funny bits, but the vibe is definitely dark. This seems to have jarred a few theatergoers, who left at intermission — missing the show’s crowning achievement.
After the break, we return to a big leap in time and tone. We’re now 75 years further on, and the entire third act is a musical presented to the dystopian future’s audience.
Against a crudely painted backdrop, the cast is wearing slightly menacing masks that evoke stylized Simpsons, and the whole things feels like a demented mix of commedia dell’arte, Grand Guignol and cartoon.
Through decades of oral transmission, the plot of “Cape Feare” has taken on a life of its own, mirroring survival in the new America.
“There’s no life to aspire to,” sings a devilish Mr. Burns (Sam Breslin Wright), who’s replaced the original villain, Sideshow Bob. “No air, no earth that won’t expire you.”
The songs by Michael Friedman (“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”) incorporate distorted bits from Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Gilbert and Sullivan — what people will remember when there’s no YouTube to remind them.
The result is unsettling and deeply sad. It’s also one of the most affecting tributes to theater and tenacity you’re likely to see all year.
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