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.
Still, Washburn’s play is a puzzle box that expands at the speed of your own engagement. In thinking about Ghazal, I realized that one of the newborn piglets, too, eats a poem of Peter’s that the children place in the pen. What does it mean? Is there a definitive answer to be had about this or any other character, or is our own mining of our minds the point of the journey? The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire is a slow burn, the kind of work that sticks to you and makes you jump in the middle of the night after you leave the theatre. Its more confusing moments uncoil and reveal themselves to you, if only you give it the time it deserves.
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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