Critic's Pick! “Downright brilliant.” – The New York Times
“Anne Washburn’s hypnotic, sly and fiendishly insinuating Mr. Burns, a post-electric play... does the improbable: It makes the end of civilization seem like the perfect time to create glowing objects of wonder and beauty.” – Time Out New York, Read More
“Downright brilliant. When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? Get ready to reel, New York. Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a post-electric play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas. With grand assurance and artistry, Ms. Washburn makes us appreciate anew the profound value of storytelling in and of itself, and makes a case for theater as the most glorious and durable storyteller of all. I look forward to remembering it for a long, long time.” (Critic's Pick) — The New York Times, Read More
“Get in line ASAP. This bizarre, funny, bleak, wonderful show is even better than its hype. Inventively directed by the Civilians’ Steve Cosson, it’s also one of the most affecting tributes to theater and tenacity you’re likely to see all year.” – New York Post, Read More
“With songs of horror and resilience, Washburn reminds us of the ways stories survive and adapt with us, how their specifics and lessons change to the society that tells them, how their meaning is inconstant but our need for that meaning, whatever it happens to be at a given time, is pure and permanent... The stories we tell ourselves, the jokes we repeat, the TV in which we pickle – all that shapes us, the show insists, and none of it need be the dead end we might fear. From hell, Mr. Burns sends us to heaven.” – The Village Voice
“Mr. Burns subtly dramatises the process of cultural transmission in a mass media era. In Washburn's post-apocalyptic world, the works of Joseph Conrad, William Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams apparently survive only in episodes of The Simpsons punningly titled ‘Bart of Darkness,’ ‘Much Apu about Nothing’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Marge.’” – The Bard to Bart: How Mr. Burns Challenges Our Common Culture, The Guardian, Read More
ON BREAKING CHARACTER
Mr. Burns Turns 10: An Interview with Playwright Anne Washburn
14 September 2023