A Noise Within’s latest bombshell, Exit the King, is, at first, a bewildering play: part fairy tale, part commentary, and at last, part philosophical meditation. But the pieces gradually coalesce around the title character, King Berenger (Henri Lubatti), whom we learn must die this day. As anyone, he will fight this diagnosis, tooth and nail.
Set in an imaginary country, both King and kingdom are inextricably linked, as we learn of his crumbling surroundings through periodic bulletins proclaimed by his Guard (Lynne Robert Berg). As Queen Marguerite (Joy DeMichelle) and the Doctor (Ralph Cole, Jr.) tend his Majesty, with the help of Nurse Julliette (KT Vogt), second queen Marie (Erica Soto) flits about in an attempt to mitigate the King’s impending demise.
What makes Ionesco’s character entertaining is the clownish way that Berenger struggles to deal with his doom. Director Michael Michetti makes the most of these situational bon mots with the help of Clowning Consultant, Matt Walker. The result is some difficult if hilarious derring-do, performed by actor Henri Lubatti, even as his character, King Berenger, pontificates on crumbling infostructure, inept international relationships, and the increasing lack of his own physical stability. In particular, a section about the King’s insistence on naming monuments after himself generated audience murmurs of recognition.
As the two Queens, Joy DeMichelle and Erica Soto seamlessly perform as foils to one another, almost as mother and daughter might have done. And, both doctor and nurse perform in much the same way, leaving the King to stay front and center as he noodles through his last day. Despite all the comedy, though, the King’s last hours reminds us all that death is one appointment that we all must keep.
It helps that the set design by Tesshi Nakagawa— a throne room cluttered with over-hangings – reinforces the fairy-tale feel that is carried out by Angela Balogh Calin’s fanciful costuming, and, especially, the imaginative make-up and wigs by Tony Valdez. It is only by the end of the play that the clutter seems to clear away, as Jeff Gardner’s sound design and Jared A. Sayeg’s lighting, brightens the journey.
Eugene Ionesco, the playwright, was entering his fifties when he wrote Exit the King. He had experienced first-hand the invasion of Paris by the Germans and the devastation from numerous bombings that resulted. The country was just struggling out of this desolation when Ionesco contemplated King Berenger’s demise. Taking this concomitant time period into consideration, then, pulls Ionesco’s play into focus. We can then recognize the journey, each in our own context.
Exit the King at A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena 91107, continues through May 31, 2026, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at7:30 p.m.; with matinees on Saturdays andSundays at2 p.m. Tickets start at $41.75, with student discounted tickets at $20.00 available. For information or tickets call (626) 356-3100 or go online to: www.anoisewithin.org.
