Lightening Jar Theatre
fortyfivedownstairs
New season: 2 to 12 May
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| Lightening Jar's 012 Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. Photo by Sarah Walker |
Melbourne has been holding out for a production of Anne Washburn's 2012 Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play and, combined with it being on the VCE Drama list, Lighting Jar Theatre's recent season pretty much sold out before it even opened.
So it's eeeeeexcellent news that a return season has been announced at fortyfivedownstairs from 2 to 12 May. As so many people missed out on the first season, the time to book is yesterday. I'd go again, but I don't want anyone else to miss out.
It's a fascinating story about how and why we tell and make stories, how the popular becomes culture, how myth becomes familiar, and how what we know as a certainty changes so quickly.
In the near future, humans finally destroyed themselves. There is no power, a constant fear of nuclear contamination, and the knowledge that most survivors have lost everyone they loved. Around a fire – the design by Sophie Woodward (set and costume), Richard Vabre (lighting) and Russell Goldsmith (sound) creates a remarkable world lit only by fire –, a group, who are together because there is no one else, re-tell a favourite episode of The Simpsons: "Cape Feare". With such a well-known episode, which is a parody of a remake of a film based on a book, the temptation to call out and join in with the telling is almost too much. That is until we realise that we are not in that world with them and new stories, rituals and rules developing, like the post-911 reading of names at memorials.
Seven years later, the group now perform live episodes of The Simpsons, based on memories and lines they've bought from other survivors.
Seventy five years later, new generations tell the story. Remember that there's no power and all that's really survived is memories, trauma and stories.
Director John Kachoyan and music director Andrew Patterson make the familiar feel epic as they unearth layers of cultural understanding and misunderstanding. And they add layers of story and culture – popular and highbrow – that makes this story becomes ours and makes us question all of our stories.
