The post-apocalyptic three-act is a treat for the adventurous theatregoer.

For theatre lovers looking for a show that’s so far out of the ordinary that it practically occupies its own category, Mr. Burns is the hot ticket at Fort Collins’ Bas Bleu Theatre this month.

Anne Washburn’s 2012 three-act bizarro journeys from “what just happened?” to Station Eleven to a comic-tragic opera — taking the audience on a 75-year journey after an unknown apocalyptic event renders the world electricity-less.

Cleverly directed by Steve Keim, the production benefits from an excellent cast performing multiple roles as the story winds its way through a funhouse of pop culture that’s transformed as the years roll by. The action starts with a group of people sitting around a fire after whatever happened happened, passing the time by trying to recall an old episode of The Simpsons, “Cape Feare” — itself based on the Cape Fear horror film.

What seems like a benign entertainment forms the core of the story, as we skip seven years into the future and find the same group of people is making a living as a wandering troupe recreating Simpsons episodes. The spin is that no one has the scripts, so along with their own recollections, the troupe crowd-sources individual lines from shows — setting up a booth at their performances and paying people for the content.

We hear of another Simpsons crew that has even more complete shows than they do, as well as a smaller one that sold its shows to the bigger outfit. It all points to a world where live entertainment is currency in itself — a theatre artist’s dream, perhaps, but punctuated by the violence that undergirds all society in the post-electric era.

The troupe also creates commercials, featuring nostalgic references to pre-apocalyptic luxuries (wines like Chablis, hot showers) and a jumble of pop music memories. When we jump to the third act, 75 years after the apocalypse, we find all of that has morphed and mooshed together into a wild performance that’s performed as a musical with a live band.

A scene from Act 1 of ‘Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play’ at Bas Bleu. | Photo: William A. Cotton Photography

A long, strange trip

Mr. Burns travels from a stark, black-box environment in the first act — where the characters are still essentially in shock — to an increasingly elaborate world where the humans have somehow learned to make do sans spark. Act Two shifts us to the world of backstage, where the troupe is rehearsing its show amid a good deal of arguing. We see Matt (Bruce Gammonley) has taken on the role of Homer and Gibson (Calvin McConnell) is Sideshow Bob while Jenny (Annabeth Lofton) is Marge and Sam (Brett Darling) is Bart.

McConnell is the highlight of this sequence, artfully portraying a nervous wreck who’s perhaps the only one honest enough to show how scared he is. In the third act, he’s taken on the role of Scratchy — the cartoon mouse always at war with the mouse Itchy (Sarah J. Baker) — while the characters of Sideshow Bob and Mr. Burns have merged into one nasty entity played with demonic enthusiasm by Darling. Meanwhile, Karis Elliott, who played a high-strung businesswoman in Act Two has fully taken up the mantle of Bart Simpson.

All of this is illustrated nicely by the production team, with especially big kudos to Terri Gerrard, who designed not only all the wildly inventive costumes but a multitude of masks as well. Brian Miller doubles as set and lighting designer, creating a provocative landscape ranging from that first, sparse set to a full-blown boat careening down a river in the final act.

The troupe at work in ‘Mr. Burns.’ | Photo: William A. Cotton Photography

A feat of imagination

I must confess to being a bit awed by Washburn’s script, particularly the third act. We all know that the passage of time has its effect on stories in all mediums, but to project forward multiple decades and have it come across so realistically is truly a feat. The operatic finale is a superbly imagined mashup of elements that have become twisted and tweaked — some deliberately, partly by the passage of time and certainly to match the current zeitgeist.

Watching it all unfold is to be part of the transformation, as we’re asked to understand it all. Mr. Burns puts plenty of demands on the audience just to keep up while also underscoring the incredible importance of story and how an oral tradition can be such a fungible medium. Whoever owned the rights to The Simpsons is long gone, the stories are part of the public domain and the characters are all in service to whatever the reality of the time happens to be.

Adding to the whole shebang of Act 3 is the arrival of a small band comprised of percussion, piano and guitar. The music is primal, folksy and foreboding and, combined with the addition of Tiana Fuentes as a masked chorus leader, creates a sonic tableau that really drives the whole thing home. It’s so weird and off-kilter that it rings entirely true.

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play is a treat, a gift to more adventurous theatregoers looking for something out of left field that delivers across the board. Keim and the Bas Bleu team have served up a loving production that really sings — in the most disturbing fashion.