BWW Preview: MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY at Unicorn Theater

Excited and animated describes Ted Swetz, director of "Mr. Burns, a post-electric play" now showing at Kansas City's Unicorn Theatre. Swetz heads the MFA Acting program at UMKC and in addition to serving as director of this bold UMKC/Unicorn Theatre co-production of Anne Washburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2012 work

Swetz pilots this new and already widely honored dark comedy down a road it has not traveled before. It is a path made even more relevant by the recent terror attacks suffered in California and worldwide. "Mr. Burns" is not about an attack, but rather tells the story of what might happen in the days and decades that follow one.

"The author puts us into a world where an incredible tragedy has happened in one fell swoop," explained Swetz. "The grid has been destroyed and millions of people have died. Try to get your mind around a world where the United States has no electricity at all. This is really hard to do because we have become so dependent on power. Ms. Washburn plops us down in absolute chaos."

"When the play opens up, the audience doesn't realize what is going on," explained Swetz. A rather normal group of people sit around a campfire, remembering a famous episode of the animated television comedy, 'The Simpson's.'"

They recall (somewhat fancifully) an episode based on two earlier film versions of the thriller "Cape Fear." The characters find a sense of peace and a sense of lost joy in their share memory. It is therapeutic for these people and it is their escape from their daily chaos. In the middle of the first act, an intruder interrupts their pleasant time, weapons are drawn, and the audience understands for the first time why these people have come together.

Act II happens seven years further on. Despite the evidently permanent lack of power and the fear of nuclear contamination, humans survive and pass down their shared stories through traveling theater troupes. Act III takes place 75 years still later. The tales told have morphed from the campfire remembrance, to traveling play, and then to musical theater. The whole thing plays out as an unintentional version of the party game... "Telephone" and explores can happen to memory over time.

"I think it is one of the most unique plays you will ever see," said Swetz. I know it has been that experience for me. It takes a fascinating idea and imagines. It could have been about any series on TV, but a collaborative process during the creation landed on "The Simpsons' 'Cape Feare" episode."

"Mr. Burns, a post-electric play" opened at the Wooly Mammoth in Washington DC in May 2012 and then ran off Broadway in New York at Playwright's Horizon the following year before being nominated for the 2014 Drama League Outstanding Production of a play. Mr. Burns has already been additionally performed in Seattle and in Minneapolis at the Guthrie and in San Francisco. This is the Kansas City premiere engagement of Mr. Burns.

New York Times theater reviewer Ben Brantley called it "a new play that is so smart it makes your head spin. Anne Washburn's downright brilliant "Mr. Burns" a post-electric play" has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas.

Now in previews, "Mr. Burns" opens on December 5 and continues through December 27, 2015. Tickets are available at www.unicorntheatre.org or by telephone at 816-531-7529