★★★★ for EXIT THE KING from Bristol Post Exit The King. Ustinov Studio, Bath Trying to fathom much that is frankly unfathomable in this black comedy by the Romanian master playwright Eugene Ionesco could leave you with a severe headache. Better not to try and intellectualise the work but to settle back and admire the brainpower involved in the original and the skill of this new translation by Jeremy Sams. The concept is simple: King Berenger is 400 years old and about to die – in fact he has been told bluntly that he will kick the metaphorical bucket at the end of the play. He then spends the next 105 minutes raging against the dying light of his mortality. After all surely a man who split the atom, invented the motor car and wrote the complete works of William Shakespeare can cheat a little inconvenience like death? Anxious to help him over the final threshold are his number one wife, Queen Marguerite, and a Doctor/executioner who cannot sign the death certificate fast enough. Trying to keep life in the old monarch are number two wife, and royal favourite, Queen Marie, a dotty servant Juliette and a Guard who continually barks out new decrees preceded by the thumping of his staff of office on the floor to prevent any nodding off. It is director Laurence Boswells task to make a single theme stretch through the production and despite the predictability of the conclusion he manages to keep the idea fresh. Alun Armstrong uses his amazing elasticated face to startling effect as the megalomaniac pyjama-clad King. One moment he is leading a chorus line with the all the jollity one might expect from an actor who was the original Thenardier in Les Miserables, and the next disintegrating visibly towards his inevitable demise. Siobhan Redmond, as Queen Marguerite is masterly especially in the final scene as she comforts her frail, frightened husband and Beth Park provides a striking counter balance as the tearful, loving Marie. theatreroyal.org.uk/page/3029/Exit-the-King/905
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:20:26 +0000
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