Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 26th April 2017
Presented by State Theatre Company and Belvoir,
Mr. Burns - A Post-Electric Play is a trip into surrealism, a walk on the wildly bizarre side. It is in three acts, the first in a post-apocalyptic world, the second is set seven years later, and the third is another seventy-five years after that. Written by
Anne Washburn, with a musical score by
Michael Friedman and lyrics by Washburn, the names of the characters that we meet in the first act are actually those of the actors with whom she worked in the development of the play.
A group sit around a brazier, which could have been made to flicker for a more realistic effect, recalling the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons, episode two from season five, aired in July 1993, trying to piece it together and remember the exact dialogue. Interestingly,
Mr. Burns is not actually in that particular episode to any degree, but Sideshow Bob seems to polymorph into Monty Burns over time.
Windscale, later renamed Sellafield and the site of a new nuclear power plant, Chernobyl, Mayak or Kyshtym, Fukushima Daiichi, Severesk, formerly Tomsk-7, Mihama, Three Mile Island, Flamanville, Tokaimura, Macoule, the names are ominous for the association with nuclear accidents. Fukusihima is still leaking radiated materials into the Atlantic Ocean, and will continue to do so until a way is found to stop it but, now, it is far too late as the entire ocean is polluted. All oceans are connected and so this will spread to the rest of the world. There are 437 nuclear reactors worldwide. The potential for a planet-destroying disaster is enormous.
This is the basis for the first act, with one reactor after another failing catastrophically and polluting air, food, and water, slowly killing those that did not die instantly in an explosion. The group indulge in this escapism to avoid thinking or speaking about their reality. Only when a stranger arrives do we learn much about what is really happening.
In the second act, the group have added some extra members, and are recreating the entire episode as if in a television studio, including adding the commercial breaks. They have also added other episodes to the repertoire. As there is no longer any electricity, it is played as a travelling stage version, competing with rival companies who have different episodes.
By the third act, things have become so distorted that it has become a proto-religion, with a completely reworked version of the story and redefined characters, with Monty Burns and his two henchmen, Itchy and Scratchy, bent on wiping out the Simpson family, and Bart becoming the hero. The third act is entirely in musical theatre format with musical suggestions of everybody from
Andrew Lloyd Webber, reminding us of a parallel in Jesus Christ, Super Star, to
Stephen Sondheim, through Gilbert and Sullivan, of course, since excerpts from HMS Pinafore are sung in that episode, and they even throw in a touch of pseudo-rap. Even The Flintstones get a musical reference. Musical director,
Carol Young, joins them on one side of the stage for the third act, playing a multitude of instruments and adding vocal harmonies.
This is a polarising work, which some will love and others will hate. There will not be many taking the middle ground. You might even be divided over your opinion of each of the three acts. This has been the case with previous productions of this work and there is no doubt that this one will face the same fate.
The play is primarily an ensemble piece, until the third act when
Mr. Burns appears and drives the action, and Paula Arundell,
Mitchell Butel,
Esther Hannaford, Jude Henshall,
Brent Hill, Ezra Juanta, and Jacqy Phillips are a sensational ensemble. Director, Imara Savage, musical director,
Carol Young, and choreographer, Lucas Jervies, having assembled a cast of very talented and experienced artists and put them through their paces to create a tight and fast moving production.
In the first two acts the performers play the survivors, having taken on the names of the original actors, Matt (
Brent Hill) Jenny (
Esther Hannaford), Maria (Jacqy Phillips), Sam (Ezra Juanta), Colleen (Jude Henshall), Gibson (
Mitchell Butel), and Quincy (Paula Arundell). They also, of course, play characters from The Simpsons, with
Brent Hill as Homer, Paula Arundell as Marge,
Esther Hannaford as Bart, and Jude Henshall as Lisa. The bad guys are Jacqy Phillips as Itchy, Ezra Juanta as Scratchy, and
Mitchell Butel as
Mr. Burns.
The last act initially makes a passing reference to commedia dell'arte, in the use of masks but, as part of the ensemble becomes a chorus, there is also a link to Greek tragedy. Jonathon Oxlade's sets, particularly for the third act, tell the story of the progression in tandem with the text, and are evocatively lit by Chris Petridis. Oxlade also designed the costumes, and you really have to see those for yourself, especially the transformed outfits for the cartoon characters in the finale.
The performances, though, that carry the weight of this unusual, somewhat experimental piece of theatre and a uniformly high standard of acting across all three acts, each in a different style, ending in surrealism, holds it all together.
Mitchell Butel, as the reinvented
Mr. Burns, dominates the third act, strutting, posing, and gloating over his prey, sending Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie to their deaths and goading Bart into fighting for his life. Butel gives a magnificent performance in the role, with a physicality that would have snapped every bone in the original character's body. He is demonic, the embodiment of evil.
That does not overshadow the others, but gives them a solid attack against which they have no defence, enabling them to put up their futile fight, and make statements against his terror. Homer,
Brent Hill, Marge, Paula Arundell, and Lisa, Jude Henshall, each succumb to their fate with a dignity and resignation, leaving Bart,
Esther Hannaford, to face Burns alone. Their superb performances allow the Simpsons to take on a mantle of piety that the original characters would never have achieved. Bart, alone, must overcome his loss of all that he was, reduced to accepting his end, yet finding himself automatically defending against the sword strikes that Burns aims at him. Hannaford has Bart reach down into himself to find the drive to defeat Burns, good triumphing over evil, with a reluctant and unexpected hero, who was so often the villain himself.
It is quirky, it is weird, and you might be one that hates it, but you should still go to see this exceptional work while the opportunity is here. You might very well be one of the majority, judging by opening night, that loves this play. Hurry, as I suspect that the controversy will generate rapid ticket sales.
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