Stage adaptations have given us beloved movies like His Girl Friday, Wicked, and West Side Story. The subgenre has also given us Dear Evan Hansen, so it’s a mixed bag. Either way, casual fans may assume that the genre’s output is mostly musicals and Shakespeare, but there’s a surprising amount of experimentation out there, too. Now, one of the most creative directors working today is adapting a theatrical work that takes an iconic piece of pop culture — The Simpsons — and turns it into a post-apocalyptic story of hope and survival.
Playwright Anne Washburn recently announced a film adaptation of her most notable work, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, directed by Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley, which Riley confirmed on social media. The three-act play depicts the world after an unspecified apocalyptic event. In Act One, set soon after the apocalypse, a group of survivors gather around a campfire and distract themselves by trying to remember the plot of the Simpsons’ “Cape Feare” episode, in a scene crafted by actually assembling a cast of actors and asking them to recall the show. Then, in Act Two, we jump ahead seven years and follow a troupe of actors as they tour a production of this and other Simpsons stories, Station-Eleven-style.
