Anne Washburn

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play

Typescript draft, dated 9.3.13. Unmarked script of a play that opened September 15, 2013, at Playwrights Horizons, New York, N.Y. The last 28 pages of the script are peopled by characters from The Simpsons televsion program. Bart Simpson is the son of Homer Simpson, whose mendacious boss is Mr. Burns.

A Post-electric Play

Mr Burns

"Anne Washburn's plays blend naturalistic human presence with formal thought experiments that drive at the question of what storytelling means to human survival. Via high-and-low storytelling, Washburn writes about contemporary and near-future culture, calling on Homer, Euripides, the Prophet Jeremiah, the world of fantasy games and The Simpsons"--Cover.

""One of the most spectacularly original plays in recent memory."--Entertainment Weekly "Fascinating and hilarious. With each of its three acts, Mr. Burns grows grander."-Village Voice "When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin?. Mr. Burns has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas, with depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination."-The New York Times. An ode to live theater and the resilience of The Simpsons, Anne Washburn's apocalyptic comedy Mr. Burns-"even better than its hype" (New York Post)-is an imaginative exploration of how the culture of one generation can evolve into the mythology of the next. Following an enthusiastic critical reception from New York critics for its world premiere, Mr. Burns will receive its London premiere in spring 2014. Also included in the collection are The Small, I Have Loved Strangers, and 10 out of 12, all of which, together, develop a theme of destruction, from the personal to the city to civilization and, finally, to the destruction of form. Anne Washburn's plays include The Internationalist, A Devil at Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, The Small, and a transadaptation of Euripides's Orestes. Her awards include a Guggenheim, NYFA Fellowship, Time Warner Fellowship, and a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist. She is a member of 13P, The Civilians, and is a New Georges affiliated artist"--

Mr. Burns and other plays

"Anne Washburn's downright brilliant play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas" - New York Times It's the end of everything in contemporary America. A future without power. But what will survive? Mr Burns asks how the stories we tell make us the people we are, explodes the boundaries between pop and high culture and, when society has crumbled, imagines the future for America's most famous family. A delightfully bizarre, funny, bleak and wonderful play that challenges dramatic form and the nature of theatre as storytelling. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features a new introduction by Charlotte Higgins.

Lucy Prebble

Inua Ellams

Tanika Gupta

Vinay Patel

Philip Ridley

Simon Stephens

Tim Crouch

Alistair McDowall

Zoe Cooper

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Chris Thorpe

Hannah Khalil

Edward Bond

James Graham

Sudha Bhuchar

Laura Wade

Christopher Shinn

Mojisola Adebayo

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world's most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: “how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?” The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre's most prolific dramatists.

20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times

Theatre in Times of Crisis

From across the room I saw the President, torchlight playing across his visage. And the violins began, and the low rumble of the timpani. I screamed. I ran. An old farmhouse upstate. Snow is falling. Mountains are falling. Something is breaking apart. You are formally invited to dinner with the 45th President of the United States. Anne Washburn (The Twilight Zone, Mr Burns) returns with a sinister and sensational new play, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold.

Shipwreck

Anne Washburn

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