An episode of “The Simpsons” achieves mythical status and eventually becomes high art in a musical comedy opening Saturday at the freeFall theatre in St. Petersburg.
“Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play,” by Anne Washburn, raises questions about what elements of our culture might survive in a future world where civilization and technology have crumbled.
The play’s title refers to a familiar “Simpsons” character, Mr. Burns, the aged, miserly owner of a nuclear power plant (ironic in a future without power).
At the outset of the play, a handful of survivors of an apocalyptic event struggle to cope without electricity and a structured society. They gather around a campfire and find common ground in trying to recall a specific episode of the longest-running TV comedy in the history of television.
The episode that has stuck in their minds is “Cape Feare,” from season five of “The Simpsons.”
In this animated farce, Bart Simpson is stalked by the recurring character Sideshow Bob, who has been released from Springfield State Prison and wants revenge for Bart’s testimony that put him in prison.
The episode parodies “Cape Fear,” a 1991 Martin Scorsese thriller with Robert Di Nero and Nick Nolte that was a remake of a 1962 thriller starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck that, in turn, was based on a John D. MacDonald novel, “The Executioners.”
And, as with every “Simpsons” episode, this one has dozens of pop culture references, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado” to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”
Just as the original inspiration, “Cape Fear,” had morphed from a thriller to a satire, the apocalyptic version continues to morph.
“This play is about storytelling and what happens when people have to come up with ways to entertain themselves,” says actor Susan Haldeman, who along with T. Robert Pigott headlines a cast featuring Nick Lerew, Kelly Pekar, Christopher Rutherford, Hannah Benitez and Kaylin Seckel.
Haldeman, who plays survivor Jenny (and Marge Simpson), says “The Simpsons” story evolves much the way our fairy tales and legends have evolved.
“By the second act, these people have formed a traveling theater troupe to tell this story, and they are even making their own live commercials,” she says. There’s also a medley of pop songs based on the group’s selective memory.
Act three jumps 75 years into the future. By this time, the reimagined “Cape Feare” has become an iconic inspirational story. It is presented as an opera performed by masked characters, like the ancient Greek chorus, singing rhymed couplets that end in a glimpse of heaven.
Haldeman, an actor with 20 years of stage experience, also serves as company manager at freeFall. She says it is not necessary to have seen the “Cape Feare” episode of “The Simpsons” but it makes the play more fun if you have.
Episodes of “The Simpsons” are available to stream online.
This freeFall production is directed by freeFall’s artistic director, Eric Davis, with musical direction by Michael Raabe and set designs by Steven K. Mitchell .
“This is one play that you should go see anywhere you can because you will never see two versions that are alike,” Haldeman says. “There is so much room for interpretation.”