Production Analysis
Concept Statement
Exit the King is set in a crumbling kingdom during a modernistic version of the seventeenth century. The play explores the egotistical King Berenger’s final 90 minutes as he learns to accept his mortality. Eugène Ionesco focuses on the inevitability of death and the human struggle to accept the loss of control.
Production Statement
Exit the King explores the gradual deterioration of both a king and kingdom. The show takes place in the throne room of a gothic stone castle that is slowly crumbling piece by piece. The days and seasons are changing unpredictably while the King’s health deteriorates. This absurdist play, set in a modernistic seventeenth-century royal environment will reflect a once-powerful monarchy that has fallen into decay, mirroring the King’s declining physical and emotional state.