On Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022 at 7:30 p.m., I attended West Liberty University’s (WLU) Hilltop Players production of “Mr. Burns A Post Electric Play” by Anne Washburn. The play was directed by WLU theatre professor Michael Aulick. Judy Hennen, professor of communications and theatre, served as the assistant director for the production.

Students who performed in the play were Daniel White as Matt/Mr. Burns, Delaney Bird as Jenny/Bart, Paige Fields as Maria/Lisa, Benny Mounsey as Sam/Troy McClure, Alexis Woodward as Colleen/Ned Flanders, Calian Byard as Gibson/Nelson, Odessa Hores as Quincy/Marge, Len Batson as Edna, Shannon Shifflett as Homer, Andy Dillie as Pigum/Scratchy, Fiona Rushton as Itchy, Makenna Berka as Apu and Merritt Craft as Selma.

Act 1 of the play started with a group of friends sitting around a campfire giving a summary of The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare.” As someone who had not seen very many of the episodes of “The Simpsons”, I didn’t fully understand who some of the characters were that they were talking about. They discussed characters like Sideshow Bob, Mr. Burns, Itchy and Scratchy. Itchy is a mouse and Scratchy is a cat on a cartoon show that Bart and Lisa watch, similar to Tom and Jerry. As it turns out, Sideshow Bob was a clown that wanted to kill Bart Simpson. As a whole, I found that the first act was a bit hard to follow for me at times because I hadn’t seen the episode they were referencing.

Act 2 of the play followed the same group of friends that were in Act 1 of the play, except in this act they were producers of The Simpsons. There were a lot of interesting elements that made up act 2 that I really enjoyed. For example, the actors sang a montage of popular hit songs that I recognized such as “Toxic” by Britney Spears and “Party In The U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus. I liked that the play had musical numbers in it because it made the production more enjoyable to watch as a whole.

Act 3 of the play followed the actors dressed up in very strange-looking costumes while they reenacted “The Simpsons” episode “Cape Feare.” The set was built to resemble the houseboat on “The Simpsons”.

Overall, I thought the play was funny and entertaining even though I was confused in some parts. The sets in the play were very fun and creative. I especially liked the set of the car because it looked realistic.

My favorite actors in the production were Calian Byard who played the characters Gibson and Nelson and Daniel White who played the characters, Matt and Mr. Burns. Byard had many lines as his character Gibson that made me laugh quite a lot. As for White, his performance as Mr. Burns was very good. I liked how I was able to hear what every character was saying in the play because during many past theater performances that I have seen I could barely hear a word that anyone was saying.

Overall, the Hilltop Players did a great job with this production and I’m sure that anyone who happened to catch a performance of it probably had an enjoyable experience. This was the first live play that I have seen the Hilltop Players put on in a few years, and I think everyone involved with it did a wonderful job.