They tell stories to distract themselves, to push away thoughts of blockaded roads, missing wives and Milwaukee, devastated and abandoned (“not even a lot of bodies”). Matt (Marcus Truschinski), Jenny (Georgina McKee) and Maria (Elyse Edelman) struggle to recall the lines and scenes of a “Simpsons” episode based on the Martin Scorsese movie “Cape Fear.” Sam (Jake Penner) paces the perimeter and Colleen (Marti Gobel) hovers, wild-eyed, a few paces away. At play’s open, the group around the campfire looks almost normal, if not for a roiling undercurrent of anxiety and fear. Burns” is best described as a very dark comedy, a comedy with constantly visible guns and the swift, unsettling deaths of humans and cartoon characters alike. Burns” stories build the future, from myth and history to a blend of the two. It’s about how, when there’s nothing left, we go back to stories.įor survivors, narratives become lifelines, a way to grieve and an uncertain way forward. Burns” isn’t about them, and it isn’t satire. Yes, there are references to “The Simpsons” and “Cape Fear” and Britney Spears. Burns” also feels like a celebration of theater, with the machinations of play-making clearly on display. As directed by Jennifer Uphoff Gray, “Mr. Washburn’s exploration of that idea, first one, then eight, then 80-plus years post-disaster, makes for a thought-provoking, devastating, surprisingly funny play. She wondered “what would happen to a pop culture narrative pushed past the fall of civilization.” Burns” in 2008 as a commission for a theater company called the Civilians in New York. Those cans of carbonated water, caramel color and aspartame represent a freezer full of ice, a hot bubble bath, mindless television. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” Forward Theater’s final production of the 2015-16 season, it’s clear that Diet Coke isn’t just Diet Coke.Įight years after a hazily explained nuclear disaster, one cold Diet Coke is all the things we take for granted - take-out pad thai, functional highways, people we love. Inever thought, as a society, we'd get nostalgic for Diet Coke.īut by the second act of “Mr. Theater review: Everything's terrible, tell me a story: After the apocalypse, 'Mr.
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