The Simpsons are coming to Loyola
by Elijah Cox (BA '18), Assistant Director & Dramaturg for Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric play (2017)
Hello! My name is Elijah Cox, and I am the assistant director and dramaturg on Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric play by Anne Washburn at Loyola University Chicago. I’ll be updating this blog throughout the coming weeks with contextual, engaging information about our production. This post will serve as an introduction to the play, The Simpsons, and the complex intertwining of pop cultural references the play rests on.
What the heck is this play about?
Great question! Mr. Burns is about a group of people who, after an unnamed disaster has brought the apocalypse, start to form a collective memory around an episode of The Simpsons called Cape Feare. The play follows these characters and how they remember the episode throughout three different time periods- from talking about the episode around a campfire, to recreating the episode as a theatre troupe, and finally, to performing a musical` re-enactment of the episode as part of a new mythology.
The Simpsons is currently entering its 29th season and is the longest running scripted television show ever. The show has had an immeasurable impact on pop culture today, and allowed for the rise of other animated adult programs such as South Park and Family Guy. Many aspects of the show have become iconic, such as Marge’s tall blue hair, or Bart’s catchphrase: “Cowabunga!” The Simpsons has produced what are regarded as some of the best television episodes ever, like “Lisa the Vegetarian,” “A Streetcar Named Marge,” and “Cape Feare,” the episode recreated in Mr. Burns.
Wait, Cape Fear? Isn’t that a DeNiro movie?
Yes, it is! The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare”is a parody of the 1991 movie Cape Fear starring Robert DeNiro. What’s interesting is that Cape Fear is itself a remake of the 1962 movie Cape Fear starring Robert Mitchum, and that movie is based off a book called The Executioners by John MacDonald.
I know it’s a little confusing, so here’s a graph that will hopefully help.
Wow, that’s a lot of references.It sure is! Mr. Burns makes plenty of pop cultural references, not only to The Simpsons, but also to movies like Do the Right Thing and Night of the Hunter, and songs like "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor (You know, that one that goes “This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill.” That one!).
Interestingly enough, In the same way that Mr. Burns is highly referential, an episode of The Simpsons rarely goes by without making some sort of reference to other bits and pieces of pop culture. For example, “Cape Feare”obviously references the DeNiro movie, but also other horror films like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. Because the play has so many pop culture references structurally built in, Mr. Burns would actually make a pretty good episode of The Simpsons in itself.
Do I need to watch The Simpsons to understand this play?
No! I had seen maybe two episodes of The Simpsons before reading this play, and I was still able to appreciate its humor, creativity, and poignancy. But since a little background information never hurt, let’s go over the basics of The Simpsons.
First airing on FOX in 1989, The Simpsons is an animated television comedy that follows the archetypal members of the Simpsons family and the shenanigans they get themselves into living in the suburban town of Springfield. Family members include Homer, the dumb but loving father; Marge, the long-suffering wife who serves as the family’s moral center; Lisa, the eight-year-old intelligent, vegetarian, saxophone-playing prodigy; Bart, the ten-year-old rascal constantly pulling pranks on Springfield’s residents; and Maggie, the silent baby who more often than not finds herself saving the day.