EXIT THE KING

Exit the King was written by Eugene Ioensco in 1962. An absurdist comedy about the decline and death of King Berenger and the descent of his court and Kingdom, and indeed the world, into chaos. The heaters aren't working, the sun won't rise, the throne room is filthy and there's a huge crack opening up in the wall. Queen Margueritte is preparing for the inevitable but Queen Marie refuses to accept that the time has come. The signs that the King is dying are unmistakeable, the kingdom is collapsing but Berenger refuses to acknowledge this.

“The hallucinatory, dislocated play reveals a chasm in which there is an absence of God, a kind of nothingness; the ridiculousness of people and their plights serve to illuminate a crazy, cruel world.”

This translation from Ionesco’s French was prepared by Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush for the 2007 production of Exit the King at the Malthouse and Belvoir Theatres. This edition includes notes on changes made to the original play, production notes for the Malthouse / Belvoir production, and programme notes.

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