Anne Washburn's Mr Burns was first performed in 2012 by Washington DC's Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, where it met with critical success. Following a popular run off-Broadway, this post-apocalyptic fusion of live theatre and meta-tribute has arrived from across the Atlantic to the hitmaking Almeida Theatre in London.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Set in a post-apocalyptic America, the world that its inhabitants face is a candlelit, flickery one, filled with fear and constant movement. The power grid has failed, society has all but crumbled, and the world is faced with the impossible task of rebuilding itself.

Combining live theatre with a tribute to one of the most iconic family shows of the last 25 years - specifically, a certain episode called Cape Feare, itself a remake of Martin Scorsese's 1991 film, which in true meta-style, a remake of the film starring Robert Mitchum. Caught up yet?

The play takes a family on the run from radioactive dsiaster, and in an attempt to put aside their fears, take turns in telling now-mythological stories of a certain dysfunctional American family. There's elements of Family Guy's Blue Harvest series and the Wachowski siblings' Cloud Atlas at play here, with tribal storytelling carrying on through the ages.