Somewhere in foggy Northern California, an intentional community tries to live off the land and keep an unsteady world at bay. But when one of their own dies unexpectedly, ideals are tested and faith in their independence is rocked. The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire is a tender, funny, probing story about a death, a pageant, a rescue, a resurrection, pigs, and the act of saying grace. The kids may not be all right.
Directed by Steve Cosson, Washburn’s compatriot on her thrillingly mind-bending “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” which ran Off Broadway in 2013, this is a quieter wow of a show. Onstage in its world premiere at the Vineyard Theater, in a co-production with the Civilians, featuring a cast of eight, it takes its time at unspooling the narrative — frustratingly at first, then tantalizingly, and building to a final third in which whimsy, horror and splendor exist side by side.
The excellence in writing, performance and staging cited above applies to nearly all of The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire as it explores the human dynamics chafing within this commune. Then in the final 10 minutes or so of the drama, Washburn suddenly rockets the story off – by way of a trial-by-fire pageant the kids have enacted – into a brief, blazing world of allegory and symbolism the meaning of which baffled me completely. Several too-cute puppets suddenly emerge, too, but no lie, I don’t know what any of it signifies. Hopefully, colleagues with deeper insight will be able to clue me into what the fiery hell that ending was all about.
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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