Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play in Apocalypse Whenever

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 19, 2021 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: music, popular-culture, drama

This is... amazing. Astonishing. Ground-breaking. Riveting.

I'm so lucky I've been able to see this produced not once but twice and maybe also again in the near future. This is one of the best plays of our era (whatever era that is; I was about to say the "modern era" but that kinda confuses the meaning of the word "modern" by itself with what was the actual modern era definition, so).

I read this in 2021 after seeing it in person because the production I watched had songs mixed into the musical This is... amazing. Astonishing. Ground-breaking. Riveting.

I'm so lucky I've been able to see this produced not once but twice and maybe also again in the near future. This is one of the best plays of our era (whatever era that is; I was about to say the "modern era" but that kinda confuses the meaning of the word "modern" by itself with what was the actual modern era definition, so).

I read this in 2021 after seeing it in person because the production I watched had songs mixed into the musical numbers that I am 100% sure came out after the play was written. I wanted to see how much the production I watched altered the script. I'm so glad I did. I read plays, sometimes, less so than I see them, but when I do, it's usually because I think they'll be worth it as literature, and not totally dependent on production to have real gravitas. In this play I was correct.

The production I saw went off the rails in the third act (to be fair, the script does, too). And yes, it did include a lot of weirdly dramatic and unnecessary (I felt at the time) original music at the end. But also, it's fascinating to me that, all that was up to the company producing it. There are no directions in the book about how to deliver most of the ending third act lines. It doesn't have to be music. Of the jokes in the play, undoubtedly playing on the knowledge and sympathies of the audience with super current pop hits in the musical pastiche numbers is manipulative and cloying but - it's also the essence of popular culture, it's exactly what this play is driving at about what WILL survive when our entire way of life is gone. (If you don't think so, I invite you to re-read the VERY BRIEF but SUPER IMPORTANT lines of dialogue where the survivors of the apocalypse turned theater troupe - who have no previous theater experience except for one guy - debate hotly with alacrity and competence the age-old Plato v. Aristotle arguments of what should the arts provide humanity with, and what should they NOT.)

Read this play, sure, but also SEE this play. Compare what you see to what you read, then see it again, and compare those productions. Not out of criticism, but because, that's the point.

This play is about what happens when humanity loses every common cultural touchpoint we have RIGHT NOW - which is largely new TV and Facebook and the News and Twitter and dumb people or things being famous for a bit just to be famous for a bit, and shit that's trending -- and about how we scramble for, find, and connect through WHAT'S LEFT. It's about what sticks. And, in a totally non-judgmental way, it acknowledges that what sticks, is what EVERYONE remembers, even a bit - that's the definition of touchstone. So, The Simpsons. Whether you haven't watched it since you were in your 20's (like me) or whether it came out when you were 10 (also like me) and watched it during all of your formative years, or whether you hate it, or your kids watch it, or you're 10 now and you have no idea that you're connected to 40-60 year-olds you purpote to hate on the internet due to the supposed generational gap, or whether you still hate it because you think it's "olds" culture... it's IN YOUR LIFE and IN YOUR BRAIN.

So of course, if the entire world collapsed, for a time, all we would remember, and talk about, and reenact around a campfire, would be that which is most popular and which connects us most. I don't know if there IS anything more connective than the longest-running popular culture churn cartoon of 30+ years - The Simpsons.

But that's only where this play starts. It goes so much further from there.

Fucking see it. if "I'm Troy McClure. You May Know Me" doesn't make you alert with recognition and synthesis, or startle or gasp, or cry, you're not truly human, you're not one of us. You had better have some OTHER touchpoint or connection to humanity because, you won't survive the apocalypse, if not physically, probably mentally. Probably both. ...more

Like · see review

Sep 28, 2018 Keeley marked it as to-read

Shelves: apocalypse-whenever

Like

Oct 31, 2018 Kathie marked it as to-read

Like

From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

What Members Thought

Apocalypse Whenever