Washington Post
- Highly Recommended
"... As inexhaustibly original as the animated series that inspired it, the kookily brilliant “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” is the sort of once-in-a-blue-moon show that stays stuck in your brain long after it has chilled you to the bone."
MetroWeekly
- Somewhat Recommended
"... But the cast's ability to project the anxiety and camaraderie of their dire new world is only a small part of Washburn's vision, and by Act 2, set a number of years later,interaction coexists with performance. As the characters, now a troupe, prepare and perform a mini music revue and then a simulated Simpson moment, remembered lines and songs have evolved into fought-over currency, exchanged with a post-apocalyptic audience that ultimately includes us. Though her comment remains clear and the ensemble carries the transition well, Washburn's vision excludes too much and settles for too little."
WeLoveDC
- Highly Recommended
"...The humor isn’t just due to our ability to laugh in the face of trauma, but to the dedication of the ensemble in creating extremely natural characters. Washburn created the play through workshops with actors, and it shows: there’s an ease of interaction and dialogue that never awkwardly telegraphs “big ideas!” Chris Genebach, Kimberly Gilbert, Amy McWilliams, Erika Rose, Steve Rosen, Jenna Sokolowski and James Sugg are equally superb in their ability to make acting appear effortless. They also easily change from the low-key realism of the first two acts to the highly theatrical style of the magnificent third act."
Talkin Broadway
- Recommended
"...Director Steven Cosson worked closely with his New York-based company The Civilians and Washburn to create the play, although Woolly Mammoth is presenting the first full production. He benefits from a solid ensemble of actors who can also sing, along with Misha Kachman's fascinating scenic design (with a three-dimensional, handcrafted look) and lighting design by Colin K. Bills that picks up on the emotional undercurrents of the play."
Washington City Paper
- Highly Recommended
"...Anne Washburn’s brilliant new Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, brought to urgent life by a cast of the superb standard typical of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company productions, drops us into the aftermath of a nightmare scenario that has drastically winnowed our bloated herd. People carry lists of the living (Siri is no help with this) and no one travels unarmed. A group of hollow-eyed survivors fumbles for the intimacy of conversation without having to talk about the ambiguities and outright horrors that haunt their lives. But it’s, you know, funny."
Washingtonian
- Highly Recommended
"...Director Steve Cosson is founding artistic director of the New York documentary theater troupe the Civilians, and his preoccupation with storytelling shines through. Characters reveal fragments of what’s happened to them, but the overall picture remains murky; we learn that only around a million Americans have survived, and most nuclear plants have been destroyed, with fatal consequences. Act two is set seven years later, with the same motley crew of survivors having formed a theater troupe. They rehearse an episode of (you guessed it) The Simpsons, complete with devised commercial breaks—only without electricity or other mod cons, they’re forced to improvise when it comes to special effects (one actor ingeniously uses chalk-covered erasers to create the effect of steam from a bubble bath)."
BrightestYoungThings
- Recommended
"... Washburn offers little explanation about what happens, exactly, between the second and third act. There are enough details so that we can see why the play is being performed as it is, and what it must mean to a post-apocalyptic audience. Through a group of energetic performers people and a memorable cartoon, Mr. Burns makes us think about what stories mean and how they are absolutely necessary."
MD Theatre Guide
- Recommended
"... With a great ensemble and good production elements Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play is worth seeing. You will how ever have to wade through the convoluted writing of Anne Washburn to get to the real meaning of this show. D’OH!!!"
DCTheatreScene
- Highly Recommended
Washburn’s three-part study of post-electric America, wrapped elegantly and powerfully into an idea-stuffed two hours, shakes seven survivors out of the woods for a bruised and darkly funny hang-out around a trashcan fire. Three in particular (played with pitch-perfect earnestness by Steve Rosen, Kimberly Gilbert and Jenna Sokolowski) spend the first part of the play recounting “Cape Feare,” a much-loved episode from The Simpsons’ fifth season that parodies, among other things, the 1962 thriller Cape Fear starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, as well as Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake.
DC Theater Arts
- Highly Recommended
"... Armageddon has arrived. The power has died. The grid is down. No more television, no more radio, no more internet. No electricity. And the best way to pass the time is to recollect old episodes of an animated TV comedy series in exacting detail to the best of your recollection. That is the world that is forged in Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, presented at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company as the final play in its season about the demise of civilization."
