Join Game Master Tim to learn how to create games based on cultural objects and texts.
A FREE* facilitated workshop for creating RPGs designed to navigate climate change.
This workshop will draw on Mr. Burns, a post-electric play for inspiration in game development, but the tools and skills learned will be applicable to all kinds of game development.
Event Details
Thursday, December 4, 2025
1:00 – 4:00 PM
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Level 3 Room 301 (Peña Room)
*Note: This programming requires advance attendance at Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. If attendance to the play is a personal barrier for you to participate in the workshop, please email pop.culture@ubc.ca to explore options.
Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
by Anne Washburn | Score by Michael Friedman | Lyrics by Anne Washburn
Directed by Larisse Campbell (MFA Candidate)
Wednesday, November 19, 2025–Saturday, December 6, 2025
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM | Tickets $11 – $27 Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC
In the near future, after the collapse of society as we know it, survivors gather around a campfire, trying to recall the Simpsons episode “Cape Feare”, seeking solace and entertainment. As time passes, that half-remembered episode, plus other fragments of pop culture, becomes the unlikely foundation for new forms of performance and a means of preserving the memory of a world long gone. Blending dark comedy, music, and theatrical experimentation, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play is a uniquely imaginative exploration of pop culture, storytelling, and what endures.
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play is not directly about climate change, but rather a fictional play that uses The Simpsons and other pop culture to explore the breakdown and reconstitution of society after a nuclear-based global catastrophe, offering a commentary on memory, culture, and human resilience in a future potentially shaped by environmental collapse and other disasters. The play’s three acts depict how survivors of this catastrophe use the story of the Simpsons episode “Cape Feare” to process their world, eventually developing it into a new form of opera and mythology.