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sadie_g's review
challenging
funny
reflective
4.0
I had to read this play for a class and was so confused afterwards. But then I watched the episode of The Simpsons it was based on and though more about and saw a production of the play which all made me realize that this show is just so fun and so strange (in a good way) and I enjoyed it so much. Not like any other play I’ve read or seen but it was actually so thought provoking.
tobesmagobes's review against another edition
4.0
I love this play and everything it addresses. I would have loved to have it a hundred pages longer. Knocked off a start because the third act is hard for me to picture without a soundtrack or sheet music.
magnetgrrl's review against another edition
4.0
This is... amazing. Astonishing. Ground-breaking. Riveting.
I'm so lucky I've been able to see this produced not once but twice and maybe also again in the near future. This is one of the best plays of our era (whatever era that is; I was about to say the "modern era" but that kinda confuses the meaning of the word "modern" by itself with what was the actual modern era definition, so).
I read this in 2021 after seeing it in person because the production I watched had songs mixed into the musical numbers that I am 100% sure came out after the play was written. I wanted to see how much the production I watched altered the script. I'm so glad I did. I read plays, sometimes, less so than I see them, but when I do, it's usually because I think they'll be worth it as literature, and not totally dependent on production to have real gravitas. In this play I was correct.
The production I saw went off the rails in the third act (to be fair, the script does, too). And yes, it did include a lot of weirdly dramatic and unnecessary (I felt at the time) original music at the end. But also, it's fascinating to me that, all that was up to the company producing it. There are no directions in the book about how to deliver most of the ending third act lines. It doesn't have to be music. Of the jokes in the play, undoubtedly playing on the knowledge and sympathies of the audience with super current pop hits in the musical pastiche numbers is manipulative and cloying but - it's also the essence of popular culture, it's exactly what this play is driving at about what WILL survive when our entire way of life is gone. (If you don't think so, I invite you to re-read the VERY BRIEF but SUPER IMPORTANT lines of dialogue where the survivors of the apocalypse turned theater troupe - who have no previous theater experience except for one guy - debate hotly with alacrity and competence the age-old Plato v. Aristotle arguments of what should the arts provide humanity with, and what should they NOT.)
Read this play, sure, but also SEE this play. Compare what you see to what you read, then see it again, and compare those productions. Not out of criticism, but because, that's the point.
This play is about what happens when humanity loses every common cultural touchpoint we have RIGHT NOW - which is largely new TV and Facebook and the News and Twitter and dumb people or things being famous for a bit just to be famous for a bit, and shit that's trending -- and about how we scramble for, find, and connect through WHAT'S LEFT. It's about what sticks. And, in a totally non-judgmental way, it acknowledges that what sticks, is what EVERYONE remembers, even a bit - that's the definition of touchstone. So, The Simpsons. Whether you haven't watched it since you were in your 20's (like me) or whether it came out when you were 10 (also like me) and watched it during all of your formative years, or whether you hate it, or your kids watch it, or you're 10 now and you have no idea that you're connected to 40-60 year-olds you purpote to hate on the internet due to the supposed generational gap, or whether you still hate it because you think it's "olds" culture... it's IN YOUR LIFE and IN YOUR BRAIN.
So of course, if the entire world collapsed, for a time, all we would remember, and talk about, and reenact around a campfire, would be that which is most popular and which connects us most. I don't know if there IS anything more connective than the longest-running popular culture churn cartoon of 30+ years - The Simpsons.
But that's only where this play starts. It goes so much further from there.
Fucking see it. if "I'm Troy McClure. You May Know Me" doesn't make you alert with recognition and synthesis, or startle or gasp, or cry, you're not truly human, you're not one of us. You had better have some OTHER touchpoint or connection to humanity because, you won't survive the apocalypse, if not physically, probably mentally. Probably both.
I'm so lucky I've been able to see this produced not once but twice and maybe also again in the near future. This is one of the best plays of our era (whatever era that is; I was about to say the "modern era" but that kinda confuses the meaning of the word "modern" by itself with what was the actual modern era definition, so).
I read this in 2021 after seeing it in person because the production I watched had songs mixed into the musical numbers that I am 100% sure came out after the play was written. I wanted to see how much the production I watched altered the script. I'm so glad I did. I read plays, sometimes, less so than I see them, but when I do, it's usually because I think they'll be worth it as literature, and not totally dependent on production to have real gravitas. In this play I was correct.
The production I saw went off the rails in the third act (to be fair, the script does, too). And yes, it did include a lot of weirdly dramatic and unnecessary (I felt at the time) original music at the end. But also, it's fascinating to me that, all that was up to the company producing it. There are no directions in the book about how to deliver most of the ending third act lines. It doesn't have to be music. Of the jokes in the play, undoubtedly playing on the knowledge and sympathies of the audience with super current pop hits in the musical pastiche numbers is manipulative and cloying but - it's also the essence of popular culture, it's exactly what this play is driving at about what WILL survive when our entire way of life is gone. (If you don't think so, I invite you to re-read the VERY BRIEF but SUPER IMPORTANT lines of dialogue where the survivors of the apocalypse turned theater troupe - who have no previous theater experience except for one guy - debate hotly with alacrity and competence the age-old Plato v. Aristotle arguments of what should the arts provide humanity with, and what should they NOT.)
Read this play, sure, but also SEE this play. Compare what you see to what you read, then see it again, and compare those productions. Not out of criticism, but because, that's the point.
This play is about what happens when humanity loses every common cultural touchpoint we have RIGHT NOW - which is largely new TV and Facebook and the News and Twitter and dumb people or things being famous for a bit just to be famous for a bit, and shit that's trending -- and about how we scramble for, find, and connect through WHAT'S LEFT. It's about what sticks. And, in a totally non-judgmental way, it acknowledges that what sticks, is what EVERYONE remembers, even a bit - that's the definition of touchstone. So, The Simpsons. Whether you haven't watched it since you were in your 20's (like me) or whether it came out when you were 10 (also like me) and watched it during all of your formative years, or whether you hate it, or your kids watch it, or you're 10 now and you have no idea that you're connected to 40-60 year-olds you purpote to hate on the internet due to the supposed generational gap, or whether you still hate it because you think it's "olds" culture... it's IN YOUR LIFE and IN YOUR BRAIN.
So of course, if the entire world collapsed, for a time, all we would remember, and talk about, and reenact around a campfire, would be that which is most popular and which connects us most. I don't know if there IS anything more connective than the longest-running popular culture churn cartoon of 30+ years - The Simpsons.
But that's only where this play starts. It goes so much further from there.
Fucking see it. if "I'm Troy McClure. You May Know Me" doesn't make you alert with recognition and synthesis, or startle or gasp, or cry, you're not truly human, you're not one of us. You had better have some OTHER touchpoint or connection to humanity because, you won't survive the apocalypse, if not physically, probably mentally. Probably both.
patkohn's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ebunk's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
colin_cox's review against another edition
5.0
I bought this play on a whim, and I'm rather happy I did. Mr. Burns grapples with questions intellectual property and cultural appropriation in a fresh and entertaining fashion. If a reader, however, is not familiar with The Simpsions episode at the center of the play, then I cannot imagine they will enjoy it as much. In part, that seems to be Washburn point, though. The way we remember or fail to remember or just misremember defines our collective engagement with art (both high and low), and as untenable as it sounds, this tension between remembering and misremembering functions as a litmus test for the ideological and aesthetic presuppositions we bring to a text.
I want to read Mr. Burns again to understand better the finer points Washburn makes, but for now, I have nothing but positive things to say.
I want to read Mr. Burns again to understand better the finer points Washburn makes, but for now, I have nothing but positive things to say.
gabesteller's review against another edition
4.0
Fun! enjoyed the sense of menace and the desperateness of the fun the character are trying to have, which then curdles into the wonderful third act. loved the structures. is Station 11 anything like this? shoudl i watch that show? anyway yah