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Culture Theatre

Exit The King

EXIT THE KING by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Albert Schultz (Soulpepper). At the Young Centre (55 Mill). To September 9. $5-?$65. See Continuing. Rating: NNN

Eugene Ionesco’s Exit The King feels like a suitable play to mount in a time of ongoing war and economic uncertainty, not to mention a period when aging baby boomers are confronting big issues like mortality and the meaning of life. A shame this uneven production doesn’t come fully to life until its poignant end.

There isn’t much of a plot. The 400-year-old King Berenger (Oliver Dennis) is told he’s going to be dead in a couple of hours (basically when the play’s done), and during that time he gradually shucks his carrot-coloured wig, ostentatious robe, sceptre, long johns and crown.

In the company of his doctor, a guard, a maid and his two wives, the king monomaniacally reflects on his life, which has included 180 wars and more than a few sinister events, including murders.

Working with Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush’s recent translation (which helped win Rush a Tony Award for the lead), director Albert Schultz has difficulty finding the right tone in the play’s first act. It sure doesn’t feel like the “tragic Punch and Judy” show Ionesco describes in his notes.

That might have something to do with Lorenzo Savoini’s set, which is suitably skewed and dilapidated but constricts the actors’ physicality.

Thankfully, Dennis, such a memorable tragicomic clown in smaller Soulpepper roles (The Fantasticks, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), conveys both ridiculousness and pathos in the central role.

He’s especially fine in the second act, when he connects with his simple maid (Trish Lindstrom) and delivers a humble, heartfelt paean to life and love. As his first wife, Queen Marguerite, Brenda Robins shows great dignity and concentration when, the ultimate caregiver, she leads him toward death.

If the rest of the play had such focus and clarity, this Exit could keep its crown.

glenns@nowtoronto.com

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