In Anne Washburn’s play Mr. Burns, we encounter a world post-nuclear apocalypse where the remaining scattered population is desperately trying to hold on to the last vestiges of normalcy from their old lives. We see them mimetically trying to reproduce episodes of The Simpsons in an effort to find unity and recreate the joy they found in the original episodes, much like Zarrilli et al.’s description of early mimetic communication (Zarrilli et al., pg. 5). As the reproduction of the Cape Feare episode goes from being a story told verbally (Act I) to becoming a full-fledged production (Act II) to becoming a warped, grim facsimile of its original source material (Act III), we begin to see the transmission of the episode as a giant game of Telephone. With each reiteration, Cape Feare becomes less and less like its original script and more a creation of the people performing it. Kovarik wrote that “recorded history represents our collective memory,” and much in this way, the oral record of The Simpsons become gradually combined with the real world memories of the people living through a nuclear apocalypse (Kovarik, pg. 2). By the time we reach Act III 75 years in the future, the version of Cape Feare is so far removed from its original script that only the bare bones may be recognized. As the original comedy is joined with the tragic world narrative, the play becomes strongly reminiscent of a Greek tragedy where, despite all the hero’s best efforts, he cannot avoid his downfall predicted by the chorus.

One other significant theme is the commodification of theater. In Act II, we see that the characters are buying and bartering for lines and episodes in a marketplace which is both competitive and violent. Why is it that in times of desperation, when we may assume that resources are few and far-between, theater is what people cling to most desperately? Why is recapturing the past so important? Additionally, what does it mean something produced as media becomes both a live performance and part of our own history?

-Axis Fuksman-Kumpa