Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Video Essay (or, how i learned to stop worrying and love the hellscape)

A breakdown of the themes and apocalyptic implications of Anne Washburn's 2012 play, "Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play" and why this wasteland passion play shows both the triumph of humanity over adversity, and that maybe we need to end The Simpsons before The Simpsons ends us.
I just think it's neat. 🥔
CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 Intro: The Road
03:02 Mr Burns: a Post-Electric Play, Summarized
08:04 Title Card
08:30 The Play's Performance History
10:02 Sacred Fools' 2017 Los Angeles Production
12:51 How Sideshow Bob Merged With Mr Burns
20:01 Dramaturgy of The Simpsons
32:35 Athens' Longest-Running Comedy
36:45 America's Longest-Running Comedy
39:19 A Springfield Apocalypse
43:40 How to Run Springfield's Nuclear Power Plant
49:22 Apocalypse, Always
52:19 Anne Washburns' Theatre of The Apocalypse
54:13 Boomer Apocalypse
55:28 Expanding Burns Beyond the Nuclear Power Plant
55:55 What Does "Mr Burns" Symbolize?
1:05:46 "In Your Opinion, Are We Living In a Post-Apocalyptic Hellscape?"
1:07:36 Salvagepunk
1:18:30 Telling the Same Jokes Forever
1:28:34 Even In Dark Times, There Will Be Singing - About The Dark Times
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🍩 KZbin CITATIONS 🍩
MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY • MR. BURNS, A POST-ELEC...
MR. BURNS (NY Premiere) at Playwrights Horizons • MR. BURNS (NY Premiere...
Lysistrata by Aristophanes: Worlds Elsewhere Theater Company • Lysistrata by Aristoph...
ABC News Nightline: Chernobyl Accident - 04/28/86 • ABC News Nightline: Ch...
Monster Factory: Melting Bart Simpson in Black Desert Online • Monster Factory: Melti...
What If The Simpsons Was British? • What If The Simpsons W...
The Bizarre Modern Reality of The Simpsons • The Bizarre Modern Rea...
The Fall of The Simpsons: How it Happened • The Fall of The Simpso...
The Simpsons is Good Again • The Simpsons is Good A...
Up in the Air (Animated Short Film) • Up in the Air (Animate...
Why We Secretly Want the World to End • Why We Secretly Want t...
How the US poisoned Navajo Nation • How the US poisoned Na...
Massive gas station explosion kills one, injures 46 in Romania | AFP • Massive gas station ex...
Estalla la violencia en una marcha indígena en Chile • Estalla la violencia e...
🍩CONTACT 🍩
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[@oddtail_tiger]

"I didn't want to attract the kind of people who know what Sonichu was" - yeah. Good call. To say the least.

[@thacobell4700]

To be fair, most of the people who know what Sonichu is, did not want to know.

[@dm3588]

I first learned about Sonichu via Fredrick Knudson. That was all the information I ever needed on the subject.

[@doyleharken3477]

@@thacobell4700 i don't think i can agree with that. from my experience most of those people are archreactionary douchebags, proto-nazis and nazis who are constantly on the lookout for outrage bait, because they're dead inside and the depraved spectacle gives them the illusion of feeling alive.

[@snakebitcat]

That made the ad I got for Pokémon Go when I watched this kinda hilarious, not gonna lie.

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

Alas, I wish I'd never learned what Sonichu was!

[@robstewartstewart98]

It’s fascinating to consider the “trilogy” that the film Cape Fear, the Simpson’s episode Cape Feare, and Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play form.

[@robstewartstewart98]

And now I’ve learned there was a 1957 novel that was then made into a 1962 movie that the 1991 Cape Fear was a remake of! I’m now low-key obsessed with the transmission path that goes from John D. MacDonald to Anne Washburn

[@TheActualCathal]

Abbas Kiarostami could never

[@snakebitcat]

"Even in dark times, there will be singing ... about the dark times" was an absolutely beautiful statement.

[@levierina]

I'm from Russia and was born a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. The funny thing is I first came across Fallout around six years old as my much older brother was playing. And I distinctly remember the feeling that everything happening in the game is right here, around the corner, a few kilometres down the road. Russia was Fallout in the nineties. It was the world after the end, the world of scavengers and bands of raiders. But, as first two Fallouts themselves, it was hopeful, as you can build new things and new societies out of the rubble. Like in two first games. The funny thing is that first, pirate-made localization of Fallout games, by Fargus group, had dubbed the game Renaissance (or Rebirth, in Russian Vozrozhdenie (Возрождение) covers both meanings) But nowadays it seems more like New Vegas: old structures restored in all their shitty and false glory. For me it feels like this feeling of lived through apocalypse is a bit more universal among Russians around my generation. But the idea of hopeful rebuilding of something new is less universal, unfortunately.

[@sabretoo]

That's so interesting. Thank you for sharing.

[@ravendelacour1917]

By that metaphor, Putin is both Mr. House and Caeser. Once he's gone the warlords once under his command will tear everything apart between them seeking their own thrones.

[@David_Diaz713]

Oh my god… the first episode of WandaVision was steamed hams

[@KyleKallgrenBHH]

There was a whole draft of my script that originally delved deep into the history of the American Sitcom, with all of the complex social history that would entail. Wandavision is a fairly good deconstruction of the sitcom, as is Mr Burns

[@sabretoo]

​@KyleKallgrenBHH I liked the sitcom episodes, and then fast forwarded through all the spy stuff at the end

[@user-eq5vy4he7w]

@@KyleKallgrenBHH I'd love to see that!

[@hagbardceline7118]

I will always defend Chumawamba, they donated every dime from tubthumping to radical causes and crust punks to this day still respect em, that's the roots.they came from and we're still their biggest fan base.

[@WensleydaleCheddar]

Well, Kyle, you are a strange fellow, but I have to admit: you video a good essay 🥔

[@gozerthegozarian9500]

My only memory of the Waltons is the bit where the grandmother mentions that they have to be careful with money in order for them to be able to afford shoes for all members of the family in the winter. So I guess Bush & Co did succeed at making American families more like the Waltons than the Simpsons.

[@ZephLodwick]

This is so funny. I used to be able to recap _Simpsons_ and _Blackadder_ episodes from memory, and would regale my family with every line of dialogue, trying to suppress my own laughter.

[@dylanbrinkley636]

I’m 90% sure I can quote the whole of series 2 of blackadder from memory so it’s good to know if the end of days should come I’ll at least have a use 😂

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

In second grade, there was a weekly reading activity where one by one it would be our turn to… well, read something to the class. Eight year old me, big surprise, chose a graphic novelization of a SpongeBob episode. Except, as I started reading it, I noticed that much of the dialogue was “wrong”. (Perfectly normal adaptational changes, but I was too young to understand that kind of thing.) So I stopped actually reading it, and instead just recounted the entire thing perfectly from memory, using the comic as a guide. To this day I have almost all of seasons 1-3 near-perfectly in my memory banks.

[@Feasco]

in some distant times travelers will approach an old grand edifice made by small in perspective to the distance between it and them, taking a moment to appreciate its magnificence before one declares, "It's only a model."

[@monoverantus]

I must say I can't think of a job you're better suited for than a dramaturge. Your ability to connect so many seemingly distant dots in service of dramatical catharsis is awe-inspiring.

[@Tamlinearthly]

I was lucky enough to interview Washburn for the San Francisco premiere of "Mr. Burns" a decade ago, and she related that they workshopped and rehearsed the earliest version of the play in a rental space that was actually an abandoned bank vault deep underground on or near Wall St (I forget which). So if you choose to interpret this as a "Fallout" play, you have some material to work with. EDIT: She also said they originally started with "Lisa the Vegetarian" instead of "Cape Feare"--which is baffling to think about now.

[@LethargicScientist]

How the hell would Lisa the Vegetarian work in this context?

[@klisterklister2367]

​@@LethargicScientist and thats why she changed it. All part of the artistic process of filing off the things that don't work

[@Tamlinearthly]

@@klisterklister2367: Actually they changed it because nobody could remember enough of "Lisa the Vegetarian."

[@Tamlinearthly]

@@LethargicScientist: Well, the first two acts would presumably be very similar, just with a few different jokes. How "Lisa the Vegetarian" would play into the apocalyptic tone of the final act I can't imagine, so at that point I assume it'd have been a very different play. I dunno, maybe they'd have Lisa interrupting Homer's human sacrifice instead of a barbecue, and Paul and Linda would be angels, who knows?

[@LethargicScientist]

@@Tamlinearthly i could see them totally treating Paul and the Beatles like how fallout New Vegas treats Elvis. A semi-mythical figure whose actions were known by all before the world ended.

[@TalysAlankil]

"it's too normal to be dada" unearthed something deep within me 🥔

[@NigelXW]

"I'm grim, pretentious, and dull" won my upvote. also relatable

[@Nathanatos22]

100%

[@crashchannel_2787]

The joke with Ma kettle is that she was able to learn and figure out new things while Pa kettle couldn't bc he was too ignorant. Joke being Chief Wiggums is Pa kettle and is the ignorant one.

[@rjmayo]

The first time I read Mr. Burns was a couple months ago (prompted by knowing this video was coming-- thought it had been on my list for a long time). One of the things I found most stood out most were Washburn's notes at the start of the play about how the characters have a different relationship with death than we do and are somewhat detached about it, combined with the section that she's referring to when the characters all have notebooks of people they're trying to track down. Reading it post-COVID, it felt like a really accurate depiction of the way that new shared language and social conventions fall into place in response to massive shifts in how we live in the world. It was really striking to watch these characters go through a ritual that has become part of how they greet new people. The world ends, but not for every one, and the people who are left adapt surprisingly quickly. This was a great video!! Hearing you bring in your theatre knowledge to videos is always a good time. The section with Lindsay discussing the risks (or lack thereof) of nuclear power as compared to other fuel sources was especially interesting as someone currently doing stage management on a play about the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown. I also appreciated the nods to Station 11, by a coincidence of library availability I read it just after Mr. Burns and it made for a good companion piece with regards to post-apocalyptic theatre and how a post-apocalyptic society would remember, hold onto, and adapt the remnants of the past. 🥔 (Also, it was cool to get the surprise of seeing the Lysistrata clips with my face in them in the video for a tiny bit! It was a nice throwback to a fun production.)

[@daelen.cclark]

As long as we know what the stuff we love represents, then there’s something salvageable.

[@afterdinnercreations936]

This play sounds like it should star Katie, Dan, Soren, and Michael.

[@biznaz6969]

Those were the days

[@TheGhostofAbigailMills]

Holy shit, the double-take your comment just made me do ... I have whiplash. Had a whole chain-smoking, staring off into the distance "that's a name I haven't heard in so long" kind of moment

[@LaurianeG.]

"Oh hi, how are you holding up? BECAUSE I'M A 🥔" [clap, clap]

[@weezerifitwereatadbitmores894]

I literally watched Mr. Burns for the first time an hour ago and the fact I could find an anti-capitalist video essay on it made 10 hours ago this fact is wonderful

[@tandnmom100]

Thank you so much for making this video, Kyle - I was in a production of this show at Middle Tennessee State University in January of 2020, just a few months before the lockdown. I was Gibson in the first two acts and the titular Mr. Burns in the third, and I still consider it to be one of my favorite theatre experiences. I get so excited whenever I see other people on the Internet acknowledging this show's existence, and I'll definitely be recommending this video if I ever see that anyone else is producing the show. 🥔

[@ZephLodwick]

I have to say, even your descriptions of the play with Mr. Burns as the devil gave me chills.

[@Ruffhouse789]

I can't express how great it was to see you bring in a science communicator to speak on nuclear technology in realistic terms and not, as so often happens, treating it simply as an object of fear.

[@hannahbevan7055]

I was involved in a student production of this show as the lighting designer. We didn't have the resources to actually avoid using the theatre lights we had, nor did we have the ability to do the end bit with Burns cycling. Instead, we reintroduced electricity with fairy lights we had strung off the rig, which lit up on the last line of the final song: "I will live life gloriously". It always got a satisfied gasp, and always left me feeling remarkably sentimental, there's something about promising to be 'glorious' despite the circumstances. This video was fab :) Would love to hear more of your thoughts on plays you care for

[@hughbarlow9957]

After the apocalypse, when youtube videos are the only remaining texts, we shall bless each other with the words: "May the algorithm smile upon you"

[@crimsondynamo615]

And if you want to feel spiteful towards someone you say, “May the algorithm bury you!”

[@ThePonderer]

Is it bad that when Lysistrata came up I just thought back to Chi-Raq?

[@GeekMasterGames]

If I had a nickel for every video essay about the apocalypse from Kyle Kallgren within a year's time, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice. 🥔

[@hartthorn]

Well, we are going through, what... four apocalypses right now? So we can maybe expect two more.

[@VuotoPneumaNN]

It isn't weird.

[@Xarfax321]

Always with the drama... 😄

[@BretGammons]

Man, I wish I had two nickels.

[@MasterL9]

How am I just learning now that this play exists?🥔

[@rnbrineg]

I don’t understand why this channel isn’t much more popular ❤ Have always loved your stuff Kyle since Channel Awesome Also 🥔

[@hagbardceline7118]

*ahem* "NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!" "EGGHEAD LIKES HIS BOOKY BOOKS!" "Cut the Borax, Poindexter!" etc

[@ZyllasAthenaeum]

Came out brilliantly, my friend. Have a potat. 🥔

[@XainRussell]

I definitely feel like we’ve been constantly living in the “End Times,” but even in the face of disaster, there is opportunity for renewal. Just keep walking, we’ll pick each other up and keep wandering the wastes that are our lives. Excellent video as always Kyle. 🥔

[@ruewinterbourne]

It's an odd experience to see stuff like this as someone whose primary subject was history and whose family was so defined by the holocaust -- both my parents came from families forced to move due to changes wrought by those conflicts, some killed by them, fortunes ruined, nations liberated, sending common people fleeing as refugees because the specific structures they relied on collapsed. Shit goes to hell sometimes. Bodies become injured and diseased, including governmental and societal bodies. Afterwards, we try to reason out what happened, to encode it into stories sweetened with incentivizing 'interesting' elements for a social species, so the information persists. We put romances in, and wronged people getting revenge, and terrible foes overthrown by the strong and heroic, because conflicts like that often happen in life and make immediate sense. You can't really do that with, for example, the tendency for certain personalities, educated with certain customs and beliefs, to see the constant, short-sighted extraction of resources as a worthwhile thing to turn their life to. These people see restrictions on their trade as a threat and try to undermine them. They want the monopoly on insulin, or chemical power, and they don't seek death and suffering -- they seek the numbers in their portfolios getting bigger, because our instincts fear famine and not having what we need, and we didn't evolve with money, money evolved from our needs. So they end up as the devil wanting to destroy everything, when a real adversary just wants to destroy what is yours because it is yours, and the actual problem people just don't notice or care. The struggles of literary criticism to cope with basic forces of history seem kind of... overcomplicated, maybe. People have always lived on the ruins of what came before. Always. Apocalyptic narratives go back forever, and post-apocalyptic narratives to the end of Rome at least, with your quixotic NPCs digging through tattered sources resembling the Arab scholars with old Greek texts venerating the works of Aflatun (Plato), Sukrat (Socrates) and Arastu (Aristotle). None of this is new. The metaphor I'd use is coral -- we build on the expired remains of the last generation, and that has been the case since life emerged. The stones of ruined, formerly splendid castles get taken by peasants to shore up their houses and mark boundaries of their fields. That's just life, not a 'punk' genre to me, and that's what seems overcomplicated. We are uniquely *aware* of consequences now, and risks to us, but nuclear power still just fits into a slot of anxieties that originates from ancient human nature -- invisible contamination by toxins and disease in the environment. It's also nothing new. This is our nature and always has been. One piece of one generation in one region co-opts an ancient good luck symbol to feel like they're part of an ancient and legitimate lineage destroying a terrible foe rather than shitty young dudes with nothing going on because their economy sucks and they're mad about it. Another piece-generation-region co-opts symbols of farm tools, but none of the actual philosophical drivers or leaders farmed a day in their lives, but it makes the narrative work to get hopeless people to kill who they want. Both groups destroyed the lives and dreams of my family. Are they different? Some words, some styles of footwear, but the substance is the same: inept gangsters who like big gestures and big ideas but fundamentally lacked the ability to do what they wanted, killing or driving away the people with expertise. So Roman patricians owning everything caused the plebes to leave the cities looking for opportunity elsewhere, and Rome decayed. It's always the same song, just remixed. Great video! Roommate and I both watched to the end so you get two potatoes. 🥔🥔

[@DylanFergusC]

One of my favorite apocalypse narratives! Think I've got time to rewatch it a couple times!

[@watchm4ker]

I'll give you a 🥔, but I'm sticking this 🧅 in my belt. It's the style, you see.

[@DoodTheDoodler]

Adore you are making a video of this play. I've known Mr Burns since my community college did a production back in 2019 which happened to coincide with a regional production nearby, so it's always interesting to see the same play directed differently right after each other 🥔

[@hannahmoran3660]

I know, I'm two months late to the party, but this was (another) amazing deep dive into a work that I really didn't think I would understand. I didn't grow up with the Simpsons and still haven't watched it, so I figured "Mr. Burns" would be filled with Easter eggs and in-jokes that I, a hopeless plebeian, would never be able to appreciate. The fact that "Mr. Burns" is, in no small part, about that very gap between "I guess you had to be there" and "Let me explain it to you" is a total revelation. Thank you for making me feel a little more hopeful and a little less alone during these end times. Also 32:45, that's ME, I'm the Corinthian!

[@faxpaladin]

"Because *I'm* a *potato*." 🥔 (Oops, sorry, different post-apocalypse.) Brilliant as always. Thanks!

[@verabos7000]

Speciaal voor Kyle: Een 'aardappel'- emoji🥔. Dank voor wederom een uitstekende video!

[@Paradukes]

Your videos are always worth the wait 🥔

[@xux]

I watched this over a period of a few days and somehow dreamt about meeting you, lol. Thank you for another great video. 🥔

[@showinglight359]

Fantastic 🥔 captivated the whole time and explored thoroughly. Really good stuff.

[@GallowglassVT]

Salvagepunk is definitely something I want to engage with more. It's kinda what the play I'm writing is about. I can't go into too much because spoilers, but that theme of apocalypse as revelation is a very important aspect.

[@hotaruFirefly2]

Look up Australian bush mechanics, they build stuff with limited supplies and nothing goes to waste.

[@GallowglassVT]

@hotaruFirefly2 just looked it up. I like that it's focusing in on indigenous Australians and it's in the Warlpiri language too.

[@jessie-buns839]

Maybe look up a TTRPG called Wyldesea. Think you might like it

[@TheBurkissWay]

Amazed that every time this video reminded me of a different obscure piece of apocalypse media and made me go, "But surely he won't have a reference to Spike Milligan's 'The Bed Sitting Room', but lo and behold, voom there it be! My favorite of many offshoot thoughts this spawned in me, is just how many times theatre itself has already shaped our views of other media-it's been argued that the classic Unversal Studios versions of Frankenstein, Dracula, etc. owe more to the many bootleg play adaptations than to the actual novels, and Baum's own 'Wizard of Oz' sequels were said to feature moments written purely to create fabulous stage effects rather than for any actual plot reasons. 🥔

[@jaqlynwithaq5408]

🥔! Amazing video.. I’ll be sure to watch this play when enough time has passed for me to forget all the spoilers I just witnessed

[@StephSottile]

As a Simpsons nerd and a theatre actor/director, this was a lovely addition to the discourse. It only reinvigorates my want to direct this play 🥔

[@sisterbloomers]

A graphic novel of this play with different artist doing each act would be so badass

[@MainelyMandy]

Finally getting a chance to watch this and its so good! Great job!

[@DjynnFlyssa]

Thank you for keeping up the good work. 🥔

[@andreareventon]

🥔 Excellent and thought-provoking work as always.

[@alexiszaninetti1387]

Incredibly charming video as always 🥔 - I shall have to see if there is a slime tutorial somewhere for Mr Burns, it sounds fascinating

[@AccaLarentia90]

Thank you for telling me about the play! If there’s ever a production of it nearby i’m definitely in 🥔

[@CylonLab]

Thank you for making this. I had heard about this play years ago and never bothered to seek it out and watch it.

[@dev7938]

wow. really good video! i had never heard abt this play before and now i have to read it. 🥔

[@elfomarcio]

🥔amazing as always, thank you❤

[@Readingeye]

I can't find the potato emoji on my hand-me-down phone so I'm just gonna say it in quotes. "Potato Emoji"

[@hmertel]

Missed your work. It gives a kind of hope. Please keep singing. 🥔

[@TheMadwomen]

🥔 We survive. We always do. And art is proof of it.

[@Nightman221k]

Great thought-provoking video, Kyle! I never would have known about this play otherwise but now I'm incredibly intrigued.

[@sataprescott7588]

The not-quite-REM's-"It's the End of the World" playing over "Apocalypse, Always" is breaking my brain.

[@celestialcass]

Really fantastic video! So well-researched and absolutely poignant and relevant in many ways.

[@EyebrowCinema]

I don't know how to leave a potato emoji on desktop, but it's always such a treat when you upload a new video essay. Every work is like a sumptuous meal that I need time to both savor and digest. I suspect this will enter into my frequently rewatched works.

[@jessaminemanchester]

I saw a production of this show at my college a month into my freshman year and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since, truly one of the most impactful pieces of theater I've ever seen

[@ReiSilver]

🥔 thanks once again for introducing me to something cool I had never heard of before

[@Starhound]

🥔 Your videos always bring me joy, and a new look at things.

[@AmayaRamiel]

Brilliant brilliant essay, as always 🥔

[@CrimsonJoker13]

This helped me through a depressive episode. Thank you 🥔

[@andrewchambers9752]

🥔 I wanted to watch this play online before your essay. Didn't get around to it, unfortunately. But it is on my watch later list. Great video, as always, Kyle. You never disappoint. Looking forward to the live stream tomorrow.

[@Doomlonbbyn]

🥔 splendid essay, as usual. I now really want to see the Mr Burns play.

[@Halotaku]

1:17:36 I love it when you sprinkle in call-backs to your earlier works. Especially meaningful call-backs like this one since you really do explain it well.

[@arlekeno_]

Thanks for the links and the story of the new tomorrow! 🥔

[@macthemeh]

I was in a student run production of Mr. Burns once. I played Sam/Mr. Burns. We were going to do it in this really big space in the campus’s art museum that a lot of acting classes took place in. But we were kicked out when a coke can was discovered next to one of the pieces of electrical equipment, which went against our agreement to use the space. This was done really late into rehearsal and we had to emergency relocate to a different, much smaller location. And the production was downgraded to a stage reading production. It was still a lot of fun and I still list the character of Mr. Burns as one of the most emotionally exhausting roles I’ve ever done. 🥔

[@Sarahchamorro]

Never heard of this channel or play but I'm sold on the title and the first 2 minutes of the video.

[@chungbertflabbergast5995]

🥔 Thanks for this meaningful art about art. This video got me thinking and feeling both, when even a lot of video essays I enjoy struggle to do much of either. Your channel remains my favorite. :)

[@HeidiRipper]

🥔 excellent work as always

[@direktive4]

no mention of fukushima daiichi being exactly what we'd see with a boiling water reactor meltdown?

[@sebastiangonzalezdeg3752]

🥔 thank you for pointing me to such a beautiful play

[@poiuppx]

🥔I was REALLY looking forward to this one, given how much I love both the actual play and the concepts the play puts forth. Not shocked it lived up to my expectations. It was really cool seeing all the interviews and interplay between the different folks, too. Great video essay.

[@SquroundSquircle]

Excellent work, as usual. I'm glad to see you discussing something simply because you enjoy it. Truly, I wish more of the thoughtful KZbinrs did that! I hope you're doing better, feeling better. Please don't despair. We are in this together. Thank you for being you, and being here, doing what you do.

[@carolmay8108]

You more than earned the engagement 🥔

[@davehandelman2832]

Goddamn, i ALWAYS get smarter watching you, Kyle!! Thank you sooooo much!!

[@Mitchellfw]

Very deep, it really makes one reflect on how we interpret older works and may do so in the future. 🥔

[@Ancusohm]

I'd heard about this, but I didn't know any of the details. Thanks for the great video getting into it.

[@SneakyCoyoteProductions]

🥔 Always a good time with your videos! They are all very neat. ^w^

[@DizzBlaine]

Fantastic stuff as always. Always happy to finish up these videos feeling as if my worldview has expanded just a little bit more. It's a wonderful thing. 🥔

[@AlexGilmour]

Great work as always, gave me lots to think about 🥔

[@Elven63]

Thanks for posting this essay. Have a 🥔.

[@atomicgoblin]

Not me immediately looking up how much the rights are going for. The way the company I act with does shows, it would be around 400 to do it for a 3 show run. Hmmmm might put this show in the ear of the board to consider lol

[@kestreldomann2787]

One of my friends is a Tech Theatre Major and Film Minor, and I remember she was telling my other friend (Acting Major) and I (Teach theatre Major) about how interesting it is to see how Film major sees adaptation v. Theatre Major, and how one time her Film professor asked her class about whether they would rather do a remake of Hamlet or of Star Wars, and she was the only one who picked Hamlet. And everyone's justification it was interesting because iirc a lot of people felt that they were like nervous to touch something so like. Deeply ingrained in the world and literary canon that they didn't want to touch it, and my friend couldn't really get them to understand that every time a theatre company performs Hamlet we *are* doing an adaptation in a way. It's the same words and all, but the context and the setting and everything changes. Yes we're using the same words that Shakespeare wrote, but director/actor intent and line delivery and everything changes the context and things of the show. And I can't explain it, but I feel like if someone like that saw this play it would help them to understand it. I don't know if that makes any sense, but imo I just think it'd be interesting

[@20th_century_specter]

A new video from Kyle is always a very pleasant amd welcome surprise.

[@rorshach1117]

Great video 🥔

[@BlackwingHecate]

i got to see it when it was performed in New Haven. I shouted when I saw you were making a video on it!

[@FlourishCaster]

"a 🥔 flew around my room before you came in"

[@batjutsu]

🥔Thank you for another great episode 🥔

[@dangerwaffle2153]

This video has crazy timing for me specifically, as I just did the play at college. it released around tech week and i just finished it now, closing night Its hard to put into words just what this play means to me, but you did a fantastic job -Gibson/Homer

[@CarelessFoolFallsFlat]

Man, I can't think of anything to say, I enjoyed so much of this. I will say that I love the central conceit of the ideas of old warping and mutating through imperfect memories found in Mr. Burns and that you brought it to all kinds of fascinating places. 🥔

[@joshpadula3105]

There's a lot of video essayists out there, but I don't think anyone does it like Kyle does, still one of my favorites, and best to do it, going past 10(!) years now. He. Is Neat. 🥔

[@hellolarro]

Another incredible video! Thank you, Kyle 🥔

[@MylaMinoki]

🥔watched the premiere and LOVED IT!

[@paulwoodman9064]

Hey, thanks for an amazing video. There's plenty of food for thought, so this seems a appropriate.🥔

[@LaurianeG.]

I know I already made my potato comment, but if I may be more serious, thanks a bunch for this video, really love it! I know you don't share the same passion for his work I do, but with everything you talk about in the video, I'd be remiss not to mention Miyazaki's work as he touches on the apocalypse actually quite a bit. But never as an end. Nausicaa and Future Boy conan both takes place after mass destruction, war and everything, yet they focus on people continuing to live, building communities, learning to live with our environnement, and overall talk about building empathy as opposed to just a fight for survival where everybody wants the remaining pieces of pie. Mononoke actually very, very explicitly says that life continues, that as long as there is life, there is hope. And then there's Laputa, where for all the bravado that the ancient civilisation of, well, Laputa had, all the fear and power it commanded over the world, all it's technological wonders, it's the very same society that caused it's downfall and the film ends with an explicit rejection of that model. Sorry just thought that was relevant to the point talked about. I owe my love of cinema to Miyazaki, he is my favorite filmmaker and his work was formative for me, so naturally it will direct how I relate to and think about a lot of other stuff.